Vikings Coach Brad Childress Puts Clamps On Hazing Of Rookies - ESPN

MANKATO, Minn. -- Fred Smoot couldn't wait to get rookie cornerback Cedric Griffin to training camp.

Entering his sixth NFL season, Smoot has become an expert in the time-honored tradition of rookie hazing.

"When we first got here, Smoot and some of those guys were talking about shaving my eyebrows off, cutting my dreadlocks, shaving people's legs, pouring water on me when I go to sleep," said Griffin, a second-round draft choice of the Minnesota Vikings.

There was a time when hazing was as much a part of Vikings training camp as two-a-days in the August heat. But new coach Brad Childress put a stop to that this year, issuing a no-hazing edict that has made life easier for his first-year players.

"Awwww, never!" Smoot recalled saying when he first heard about the rule. "But he did it. He really wanted us to focus on winning, and I respect that. I just wish he was my coach my rookie year."

Smoot was drafted by Washington in 2001, coming to a team loaded with veterans like Bruce Smith and Darrell Green who knew how to make a rookie's life miserable.

"My first practice they made me tackle everybody, then they taped me to the goal post and poured some water on me and left me there for about two hours," Smoot said. "Then ... I make it to my room and my mattress was thrown out the window. So I had to sleep with no mattress and no alarm clock. They had stole my TV and my alarm clock out of my room for like four or five days."

Ever since that tough initiation, Smoot has relished returning the favor.

Not under Childress's watch. The no-nonsense coach sees hazing not as harmless fun, but as a potentially divisive force.

"You better be inclusive," Childress told his players. "You better pull people into the pile, because if that guy can help you win and you're a seven-year player and you think that doing something to him or making him get up and sing or alienating him is going to help you, no, it's not."

Childress isn't the only one to feel that way. Across the nation, stories of hazing incidents gone wrong have grabbed headlines, most notably at the college level.

In June, Northwestern's women's soccer coach resigned and several players were suspended after photographs appeared on a Web site allegedly showing members of the team clad only in T-shirts and underwear, some blindfolded and others with their hands tied behind their back.

"Hazing is something that happened in high school, it happened in college," said Chad Greenway, the Vikings' first-round pick. "I was guessing something would happen here, but Coach Childress has been strong in that we won't have any of that and it's nice to hear as a rookie."

It's yet another stark contrast between Childress and his predecessor, Mike Tice, who in some respects was more like a bullying older brother to his players than a coach.

Under Tice, rookies had to stand up during lunch and sing their college fight song and put on a "talent show" later in camp.

Most of it was the kind of good-natured fun found at many NFL stops, including when defensive end Erasmus James had his clothes stolen out of his locker, dipped in cold water and thrown outside on a frigid December afternoon to freeze solid.

But the prank infuriated James, which is just what Childress is hoping to avoid.

"We're not a team that hazes because, hey, we want all hands on deck," Childress said. "If there's four [rookies] who can contribute, or three, we want them there if they can help us win."

Offensive lineman Chris Liwienski said his fellow veterans initially were disappointed with the policy, but they have been understanding.

"The league is competitive, and if we need rookies to step in and make plays for us then we need to start embracing them as teammates as early as we can and not alienate them," said Liwienski, who was taped to the goal post and covered in shaving cream as a rookie.

It's just one less thing to worry about for Griffin. While rookies across the league lie awake at night wondering when the vets are coming for them, Griffin dozes off peacefully.

"I'm happy about the situation," the former Texas Longhorn said. "I can actually go to sleep at night without being afraid about who is coming to get me."