Written By Tom Schreier
I keep hearing all this talk about the Cleveland Browns being a dysfunctional, hopeless, historically tortured team with a clumsy and possibly criminal owner that just fired a coach who had no chance to win, and all I can think is: “Why is everyone saying ‘Cleveland Browns’ when they mean ‘Minnesota Vikings’?” — Michael Rosenberg, Dec. 31, 2013
There it was on the last day of 2013, a headline for the ages on SI.com: Dysfunctional Vikings clearly the least attractive coaching opening. Rosenberg, who joined Sports Illustrated as a senior writer in 2012 after working at the Detroit Free Press for 13 years, had the Vikings in his crosshairs and was looking to make the Purple and Gold black and blue.
Known to use occasional humor in his columns, Rosenberg joined the coterie of back page writers in SI’s ongoing quest to replace the recently retired Rick Reilly, who left the magazine in 2007. But Rosenberg wasn’t joking around with this piece. And this wasn’t some scrub on Bleacher Report or Rant Sports calling out the Vikings, it was a fully salaried SI writer launching silos at the embattled Minnesota franchise:
The Vikings are trying to hire a coach now. I don’t know exactly what their recruiting pitch is, but I assume it involves 73 different pictures of Adrian Peterson’s muscles. The Vikings do not have any other Pro Bowlers. They have no quarterback. They will play outside in a college stadium for the next two years — in Minnesota, where the average temperature in December is negative-72 degrees. Good luck recruiting free agents.
Shots fired. Rosenberg seemed very upset with the firing of Leslie Frazier, and he wasn’t alone. Thousands of fans took to Twitter, asking why a man with Frazier’s class was shown the door when he had to deal with a rotating group of quarterbacks and little talent around Peterson. Basically, the Vikings had to get the right coaching staff in — a true upgrade — for anyone, players and fans alike, to forgive them for letting the beloved coach go.
Frazier was the epitome of a class act. Outside of one disgruntled punter who felt he was a coward, the former Vikings defensive coordinator was loved by his players, and still is to this day. “Leslie, he was a great man and a good coach,” said defensive end Everson Griffen. “He’s helped me grow and develop as a player, and not only that, [also] as a human being,” echoed Brian Robison, who plays opposite him on the defensive line, “so you’re always thankful to have coaches like that.”
But the Vikings wanted a change, and Frazier was let go after a 5-10-1 season, one year after his team went 10-6 and made the playoffs. “For three seasons, [general manager Rick] Spielman was forced to work with a head coach he didn’t want,” wrote Rosenberg. “This week, Spielman convinced the Wilfs to fire Frazier — ticking off Peterson and other players who still love him.”
The Vikings got it right, though. Mike Zimmer and Norv Turner are, without a doubt, an upgrade over Frazier. Zimmer is a defensive specialist hungry for a head coaching position who is instilling a bloodlust for winning, and Turner is a former head coach who, at age 62, doesn’t appear to have any desire to be a head coach again. A year in Oakland and five in San Diego appear to be enough. Now he’s Uncle Norv, telling stories about Cris Dishman picking off Troy Aikman and making heads spin with his knowledge of the game, especially as it pertains to the offense.
It’s almost as though the Vikings have co-head coaches. Sure, Zimmer is involved in the offense, but he always has a lot more to say about the defense, especially the secondary, at press conferences and appears to defer to Turner when it comes to the minutiae of running an offense. At the very least, he has enough respect for his counterpart that he’s given him free range to say and do what he needs to do to get the job done. “Norv can say whatever he wants,” he said bluntly during the preseason.
If Spielman and the Wilfs had messed the coaching search up, they would be crushed by the vox populi by now. The team is 2-5. Peterson is being tried for child abuse. They have lost key players like Kyle Rudolph, Chad Greenway and Brandon Fusco for parts or all of the season. The offensive line is a mess. Emerging star Cordarrelle Patterson is inconsistent. Veteran quarterback Matt Cassel was injured, and rookie Teddy Bridgewater was forced into action early, only to sustain injury himself. Christian Ponder emulated Josh Freeman in a 42-10 loss to the rival Green Bay Packers on national television. And yet, Zimmer and Turner haven’t broken down yet. “I’ve been in the NFL for 21 years. I’ve seen a lot of things,” Zimmer said during the media circus involving Peterson. Turner likely would have said something similar, had he been up at the podium at the time.
That’s not to take anything away from Frazier. The man touched the lives of many players in the locker room. Save for cornerback Xavier Rhodes, who had a lukewarm response — “He was a great coach here, he taught us a lot when he was here. Now he’s at Tampa Bay teaching them,” he said, curtly, when asked about playing his former head coach on Sunday — most of the team jumped to sing praises of Tampa Bay’s current defensive coordinator.
“I think he’s a great guy,” said defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd. “He’s really humble and knew how to win as a coach, and that’s what he was. Us going down to Tampa, and him as the defensive coordinator … I’m excited to get back on the same field as him and shake his hand after the game.”
“I’m definitely going to say hello, and I owe him a lot,” echoed fullback Jerome Felton. “He gave me an opportunity, so there’s a lot of respect there, so I’ll definitely say hello to him after the game and wish him luck.”
Linebacker Jasper Brinkley, revealed that Frazier had reached him on a deep level. “Coach Frazier was a great guy, a great mentor to a lot of younger guys, myself included,” he said. “He was just a great person to talk to, and I’m fortunate to have a guy like that to have the opportunity to be able to touch my life not only as a coach, but as a man. And having an opportunity to see him this weekend will be a great opportunity.”
When pressed further, Brinkley offered that in a game full of violence, injury and lack of job security, he helped the linebacker find serenity. “He’s really big into the spiritual, and he kind of nudged a couple of guys here and there about begin closer to God,” he said. “I was one of the guys, and just going about my studies and staying constant with that, and it kind of helped me find peace.”
At the same time, Brinkley says that Zimmer has been able to bring the team together and create a support system for one another. “We’re close. You can tell on the field, we’re starting to come together, we’re coming together,” he says. “Not that we’ve been separate, we just haven’t been doing the things that he expects us to do. We’re real close, man. Real close.”
And players on the offensive side of the ball, including the mercurial Patterson, can’t say enough about Turner. “Oh man, oh man, Coach Turner’s offense, he has so much in it,” he says, “he knows what every player can do. He knows their strengths and their weaknesses, so he’s going to get you the ball, man, no matter what. He does a great job with that, finding ways to get me the ball.”
“He’s one of those offensive coordinators and minds that kind of shapes the game,” says Felton, “so he kind of sets the trends instead of going with the trends, definitely.”
So yes, Minnesota may be cold, and yes, many of its most talented players are young and developing, but the Vikings did just fine in their coaching search, thank you. Time will tell if Zimmer and Turner touch the lives of their players like Frazier did — that’s a tall order — but damn it, they’re going to get this team to win no matter what obstacles they have to overcome. Zimmer, for one, is hellbent on changing the culture in Minnesota, a culture of losing Rosenberg criticized late in his piece.
“When you wonder why some franchises lose so consistently, the answer often comes down to this: winning in the NFL is hard,” he wrote. “It isn’t like high school English class, where not everybody gets an A but everybody gets to pass. Every time somebody wins in the NFL, somebody else loses.”
“I want them to understand that it’s not okay to lose,” says Zimmer. “That’s what I want them to understand. I want them to understand that it’s not okay to lose, that we have to change the mentality and the mindset of this.” He spoke sternly, looking nothing like the maniac that chewed out his defense with myriad four-letter words. He was getting a point across to the media: Mike. Zimmer. Does. Not. Lose. “I can remember telling the defense the same thing in Cincinnati a long, long time ago that we have to develop this mindset that it’s not okay to lose, it’s not business as usual. I’m not very accepting of these kinds of things.”
The Vikings may be a bit dysfunctional, nobody is going to argue against that, but they got the guys they wanted this year. They got themselves a winner.
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Tom Schreier can be heard on The Michael Knight Show from 2-3:00 on weekdays. He has written for Bleacher Report and the Yahoo Contributor Network. Follow him on Twitter @tschreier3. |