Zero confidence.

There isn’t the slightest chance that the Vikings’ ship gets righted any time soon. That’s the take-away from the firing of Leslie Frazier and its immediate aftermath. We’ve had a steady stream of finger-pointing, excuse-making and passing the buck.

The only possible happy ending here involves an awful lot of luck. Perhaps the Vikings will stumble upon a coach who can 1) guide Rick Spielman through his general manager’s job; 2) find a way to work around the meddling Wilfs, and 3) actually be able to coach football.

That’s a tall order. If you’re the religious type you might want to offer a prayer, light a candle or sacrifice a chicken.

“It’s an emotional day,” Zygi Wilf said robotically.

No, an emotional day for him is when someone questions the plan for sky-high personal seat licenses. An emotional day is being ordered to pay close to $100 million as a result of racketeering charges. Firing Leslie Frazier? That decision was made weeks ago, probably over cigars and brandy. Reports of Spielman contacting potential replacements have been popping up for nearly a month.

Somebody had to go, and Leslie Frazier was the patsy. It happens. But where do they go from here? Spielman said he will get the quarterback situation fixed, although he offered no details. I’d rather take a guy who is living under a bridge and let him work on the quarterback situation. History says that when it comes time to choose a quarterback, Spielman should be absent from the room. Maybe even the country.

And just how much authority does he have, anyway? On Monday, he pretty much deferred to the Wilfs at every opportunity. I don’t know if that was standard apple-polishing or, more likely, genuine fear.

He also announced he was getting straight to work on finding Frazier’s successor. But even as he spoke we could see the strings moving. The owners will make the call on the next coach, just as they both hired and fired Frazier. Spielman will run a few background checks and weed out the phony resumes so the Wilfs don’t have to spend too much time away from the counting house.

Yet ownership never takes responsibility for anything. Zygi Wilf hired Leslie Frazier. At the announcement of the firing, he quickly turned over the microphone to Spielman and stepped away from the podium. He would take no questions.

Meanwhile, according to Spielman, everybody wanted to sign Josh Freeman. And everybody was on board with all the various quarterback switches. Although, he added, the final say on which one to play was Frazier’s. The day before, Frazier said he wouldn’t even think about making a quarterback change without the blessing of Spielman and the Wilfs.

Whom do you believe? I can tell you that Frazier is incapable of lying. It’s not part of his makeup.

A byproduct of all this may be the Vikings’ relationship with Adrian Peterson. A staunch supporter of Frazier, Peterson said Sunday that he would personally speak to ownership about the coach’s situation. Apparently, A.P. overestimated his clout within the organization. He said his piece, but Frazier still was gone before breakfast.

I’ve said for the better part of a year that they should trade Peterson while they can. The guy deserves a chance to win a title. He’s also starting to break down under such heavy usage here. Perhaps if he becomes disgruntled enough by this incident he will suggest that he might be better off elsewhere. But my guess is that they want to keep him as the main draw for the new stadium — the biggest elephant in what could turn out to be a tired circus.

There are changes coming. Should you trust Spielman to make them? He drafted Cordarrelle Patterson, Matt Kalil and signed Greg Jennings. He also drafted Christian Ponder, Chris Cook and signed Josh Freeman. Somebody signed Josh Freeman, anyway. It’s all rather murky.

Zero confidence.

Spielman said it’s his responsibility to provide the proper players, but that this team should have been better, implying that it was Frazier’s fault. Translation: I did my job. Don’t blame me. Meanwhile, the owners slip out the back door.

Pressed on the quarterback situation, Spielman noted that he hadn’t gotten that right just yet, but — and this killed me — he’s already started talking about the new coach’s input into making a decision about that position.

The Vikings are beginning to resemble a large, dysfunctional family. The owners, with their impressive football backgrounds as long-time New York Giants fans, are growing increasingly bold in their day-to-day dealings with the club — even if they do conduct their business via long distance.

The next coach could get trampled. He better be secure enough to handle a steady stream of orders from on high delivered by a jittery general manager.

Tom Powers can be reached at tpowers@pioneerpress.com.