The Vikings were without fullback Fahu Tahi in their win over the Packers on Sunday. Unless you’re a hardcore Vikings fan, you’re probably saying to yourself “who the eff is Fahu Tahi?” Right. I’m in the same boat. But I do know that Tahi wound up inactive for the game because of an eye injury. Minnesota head coach Brad Childress was asked about Fahu’s status after the game, and he went into some detail about Tahi’s eye, saying it was swollen and nearly shut and that’s why he didn’t play. But then Childress went all WWF on us with this line that seemingly came out of nowhere, “We always talk about Tongans having hard heads but you know, not high occipital lobes or whatever it is.”
Yes, that was Chilly’s explanation for Tahi’s eye problems. At first I was stunned and had no idea about what Childress was speaking, so I did some research to try and connect the dots. It turns out the great Brad Childress may have been making some sort of reference to the old WWF tag team, The Headshrinkers. Now I may have watched Royal Rumble in ’94 but I think I forgot a few things about The Headshrinkers. Check out this description of their tag team and tell me that’s not what Chilly was talking about:
The Headshrinkers portrayed a pair of Samoan savages … They were also billed as having hard heads that were impervious to pain; any attack that targeted a Headshrinker’s head would have no effect, and an opponent who tried to headbutt one of them would end up hurting himself. Having hard heads went with typical professional wrestling portrayals of Samoan wrestlers.
So is this where Childress got his reference from? Is it possible that deep down when he’s not coaching football that Chilly is a wrestling guy? Where else did he get this info about Tahi and this Tongan reputation? I demand answers!
