Beating the Clock

Walk down the halls of the Minnesota Vikings' picturesque Eden Prairie compound, and you'll come to the end of a hallway where there's a familiar name on the door: Bud Grant. Whether you will find him there or not is anybody's guess. His role as consultant to the franchise doesn't demand the 100-hour work weeks "required" in coaching. But then, Grant was never the type who believed you needed to put in a 100-hour week just to win a ballgame. To find Grant, you'd better get dressed up and head for the local fishing hole, or head to a local river or marsh (and don't forget your shotgun). But then, time hasn't changed much, and it hasn't changed Grant or his ideas of football. In many respects, the game has come to embrace the ways and means for which Grant was labeled an oddity by some during his working years. When some coaches retire they look for new opportunities like television