Remember those comments Ray Edwards made on ESPN a couple days ago? Long story short, Edwards reacted to Brett Favre having a personal locker room in New York by saying, "If you don't want to share a locker room with [your teammates], that's kind of b.s." Well, Chilly came to Favre's defense on Friday while also jabbing Edwards:
"I talked to [former Vikings fullback] Tony Richardson, who was [Favre's] teammate at the Jets, and he had nothing but great things to say about him. Did I get into did he have a separate locker? It’s hard for me to see that and, of course, I know how Winter Park is set up. I think he’ll be a great locker room guy. He’s probably one of the better practical jokers out there over the course of 16 years [in Green Bay] and he’s not afraid to give it to anybody. I think he’ll be a tremendous teammate as well."
"I did happen to see [Edwards' interview] and Ray kind of led himself off the bridge. If you watched it. He started I guess letting that lip flap a little bit and he’s the guy that brought it up. I think it was all in jest. Defensive linemen by nature hate usually hate quarterbacks and that’s OK."
Couple interesting things about Chilly's comments. First, though he danced his way around the issue earlier this week at "State of the Vikings," that first paragraph certainly treats Favre like an inevitability. He's pretty much the last person to cross that threshold, but I still think it's an interesting tone shift from the coach.
Secondly, when he refers to "how Winter Park is set up," Chilly's apparently referencing the fact that Favre might not be able to have his own private place simply based on the locker room's layout. Some might call it petty to dwell on this topic, but based on what we've heard in the media from Edwards and some anonymous Jets players, it is a very legitimate issue. If it's logistically impossible to give Brett his own area, that's probably for the best.
And lastly, Childress has a right to be upset at Edwards. Anyone who watched how careful Chad Greenway was at "State of the Vikings" when talking about Favre knows the tightrope these players need to walk to keep themselves out of trouble on the subject. Edwards clearly fell off the tightrope -- and then some. I agreed with virtually everything he said, but the bluntness of his comments was surprising and, for the sake of the team, perhaps unnecessary.