"Is It Throwing Good Money After Bad?"

"Is it throwing good money after bad," Brad Childress asked Zygi Wilf. Brad was referring to the 6 million roster bonus that Daunte Culpepper was set to get for the Vikings in late March.

Zygi at first said, "No, he deserves the money for years of service to the team."

Then the campaign to poison the owner's mind built up steam. Rob Brezinski, vice president of football operations, conspired with Brad Childress to over-stress the implications of Culpepper's knee injury. They basically convinced the owner that Culpepper would never be the same again. Even though all evidence pointed to an excellent healing process for the knee.

Although Daunte said again and again that he felt he would be ready for the start of next season, Childress and Brezinski spread the idea that Daunte would definitely not be ready until next November. They implied this with such conviction that it was repeated on talk radio and in the newspapers as fact.

Then to add more poison to the owner's mind, Childress implied that Culpepper was not working hard enough on his rehabilitation. This was supposedly proven by the fact that Daunte chose to do his re-hab work in his home state of Florida. The truth is that Daunte had been working remarkably hard on his re-hab in Florida and the doctors said he should be ready for start of next season.