Sorta. New Vikings head coach Brad Childress had some things to say recently about Daunte Culpepper’s choice of off-season rehab locations. Childress wanted him to come to Minnesota and use the team facilities. He called Daunte to tell him that.

Before trading Culpepper to the Dolphins, Childress sent Vikings trainer Eric Sugarman to Orlando in February so he could monitor the quarterback’s progress while also evaluating the facility where he had been rehabilitating his surgically repaired right knee.

Sugarman’s findings didn’t go over well with Childress.

“He (was) rehabbing in a HealthSouth place in Orlando,” Childress said. “I close my eyes. I’m seeing a Chinese restaurant, a HealthSouth place, a laundromat and a strip mall. And I’m thinking, ‘What did they have in there?’ They had a StepMaster and some other things.”

During Sugarman’s visit, Culpepper’s personal trainer offered to have the quarterback show Sugarman his progress, Childress said. Both trainers and Culpepper headed to a nearby paved lot.

“They go into a Wal-Mart parking lot to do his movement,” Childress said. “So you can understand where I’m coming from. There’s the HealthSouth, the Chinese restaurant, the laundromat, here’s the alley, out the backdoor and into the Wal-Mart parking lot.

“I’m like, ‘What’s wrong with this picture?’ Are you with me? I’m going, ‘Come on now. Is he better served here in the fieldhouse or the Wal-Mart parking lot?’”

Just for the record, I have no problem at all with Daunte Culpepper wanting to rehab in a strip mall if he wants to. The off-season belongs to the player. Maybe he’d be doing himself and the team some favors if he worked out on-site, but he shouldn’t have to. In the off-season, I don’t think he owes the team anything.

I do think Childress’s quotes are pretty funny, though.