Brad Childress, fired as head coach of the Minnesota Vikings last month, told the *St. Paul Pioneer Press* in a story released Friday that "I didn't do everything perfectly, but I felt I coached my way."
"I left that job in a lot better shape than we were in (in 2006)," Childress said from his home in Bonita Springs, Fla.
Childress, who went 39-35 as the Vikings' coach, acknowledged the sharp contrast between last season's ride to the NFC Championship Game and this season's troubled campaign, drowned amidst rumors of in-fighting and a lost locker room.
"What a difference 365 days can make," Childress told the newspaper. "You pull yourself into your work the best way you can each and every week, and you never expect something like this to happen. You go into every week thinking you'll win."
Childress suggested the climate of today's NFL leaves no coach untouchable, but he also said reports that the players didn't like him were "overblown."
"If you pull a couple of quotes from a locker room, it all gets exacerbated a bit," he said. "By and large, I know the support I had. It's a good group of guys in that locker room."
As the team sunk to 3-7 with a brutal 31-3 loss to the Green Bay Packers in Week 11, Childress still believed the team could climb its way back into contention.
"It was never a week-to-week expectation with the Wilfs," Childress said. "They never told me, 'Win or else.' It was just us trying to get back into what was a close game (against Green Bay) until the turnovers, and it all unfolded that day. I just said, '(Expletive).' We were just all more disappointed in what we put out there."
