Eagan, Minnesota — He knew every word mattered. This was the most important speech of his football career.
When Kevin O’Connell first set foot in front of the Minnesota Vikings — his Vikings — The team’s new head coach knew he only had one chance to make a first impression. He spent “a lot of time” preparing this message, but he didn’t. I didn’t rehearse the monologue. The best speech he heard in his life accomplished a lot with just a few words. Bill Belichick didn’t fuss to hear his own voice. Neither did Sean McVay.
O’Connell also knew what this group of players had gone through. X and O can be explained later. This first mission was very simple. The 10th head coach in Viking history wanted everyone in this room to enjoy coming to work again.After first declaring that the Vikings would change culture — three words that have been surgically drilled into players’ skulls since the sport’s inception — O’Connell has articulated exactly what it means here. To tell the truth, he himself is not a big fan of clichés. For him, it’s a “thrown term.”
He declared to everyone in the room that “player ownership” drives the Vikings.
“This is about our team, our way of doing things, our process,” says O’Connell. So they see it.Whether you’re talking about it or not, they look It’s inside the building.they look put it on a t-shirt.they look that. We never miss an opportunity to show it. But once you establish it, it becomes kind of unspoken. ”
As the players walk through the Vikings’ extravagant practice facilities, and through the corridors from the locker rooms, these are the words you’ll be greeted with: our method. our process. ’ If you want, dismiss this as a corny CW show gimmick. O’Connell is confident that such messages will make players truly believe they are on their team. not his. he’s not the GM. their team. By making everyone think like this every day, every hour, every minute, we can create the best teams in football, in sport, in life. O’Connell goes so far. He argues that any group of people who want to accomplish some task in life must accept true group ownership.
And what if it happened here? “This one can take off,” he says.
The more I talk to everyone around Vikings — headmen, players, past regimes — the more it becomes clear that O’Connell is right.
The culture is real and the Minnesota Vikings can win. later.
First, get clean. This newsletter has ridiculed #culture as a fallacy. We’ve accused the term of being paralyzingly vague. , nothing more than shriveled croutons in a salad. Still, with these Vikings… close to holy hell. This is arguably the most important thing. You may remember him from one of the first series launching Go Long in November 2020. life under mike zimmer It’s been spelled out in detail to be plainly miserable for Vikings employees, and a year and a half later, people here claim it’s only gotten worse until their dismissal in January 2022. The new gust of joy is overwhelming.
Light the candle. Cue Bon Iver. Bliss is in the air.
from Adam Thielen: “If you can get up before your alarm goes off and get excited and ready to practice, it’s not very common.”
to Kirk Cousins: ‘So it’s still early. But when you enter the building you see the shield. have to think about.”
to Brian O’Neal:”It was really fun.”
Dear Daniel Hunter: “When players wake up, they want to go to work. They don’t worry too much. They just want to get up and play football. That’s the main thing. Older people can teach younger people.It’s a good atmosphere overall.”
This is the exact opposite of what everyone felt before. He’s one of Zimmer’s former players (Dallas, Cincinnati, Minnesota) and even coached alongside him. Cornerback Terrence Newman knows that countless players were “afraid to go to work” in their final years as the organization took all the fun away. “It became toxic,” Newman says. “It was a trickle effect. If players are afraid of being taunted, it’s going to be a long day for everyone.” One of Zimmer’s former coordinators predicts immediate success for the Vikings in 2022. “Because,” says this coach. Satan is outside the building. ”
These new Vikings therefore represent the greatest case study in ‘culture’ that we have seen in many years. Out is Zimmer and his Neolithic ways. This player-friendly, player-driven operation. But even beyond a 180-degree turn, unlike most administrations calling for cultural change, O’Connell and GM Kwesi Adfo-Mensah didn’t drop an atomic bomb on their entire roster. thought carefully and decided to leave the core part alone for now. go for it. Depth charts and analytics alone don’t seem to make new players much different from old ones when tracking his football pros, but no, this is not a sport played on spreadsheets. They were not afraid to take an unpopular stance.
Anecdotally, the majority of the team’s supporters seemed to be A-OK for a complete reset. These days, graceful tanking is favored. Slashing salaries and pawning assets for picks is a shoutout to all. Be patient! we are trying! But O’Connell resisted. His eight of his nine losses for the 2021 team have been by a touchdown or less. If “player ownership” can upset a few games, the Vikings can realistically contend for the Super Bowl.
If so? The impact should ripple through the NFL.
A franchise that redefines sports heartbreak for generations. From four Super Bowl losses in the ’70s… Gary Anderson’s 1998 NFFCG miss… Dante Culpepper’s broken knee in 2005… Brett Favre’s 2009 cross-body NFCCG pick… Blair Walsh in that igloo. In the ’15 playoff game until he hooked a player 27 yards…Nick Foles turned into a Joe Montana and Troy Aikman cross in the ’17 NFC Championship to…to…OK. sorry. Stop twisting knives. Point is, Vikings fans have the right to be highly skeptical. For the most part, this may all resemble the last few offseasons with recently fired GM Rick Spielman. (He catches up with Spielman in this series, too.) Rolling your eyes when you hear a new rep is because it’s not his TED Talk they want. New quarterback. Or a draft pick. something new
So after practice this summer, I gently remind O’Connell that anyone listening to his plans has been tortured for decades.
How can he inspire hope in those who feel hopeless?
O’Connell continues speaking with cool conviction as he stares at the empty practice field.
“You never, never, never Downplay that fan’s passion and their loyalty,” says O’Connell. “What happened before us may not have been of our direct participation. But we are part of this organization and part of its great history. We had a legend in our practice and all that it entailed.In the end all we can do is worry about today and tomorrow and make sure we build a hopefully successful season, even in the face of adversity. need to do it.”
It’s a guarantee. Undoubtedly, these Vikings fall victim to phantom flags, last-minute shanks into Lake Minnetonka, and injuries. Adversity is inevitable for all NFL teams, and the football gods are especially cruel to this team. Viking teams in the past weren’t built specifically to handle Zimmer’s wrath, but these O’Connell-led Vikings are mentally built to handle anything. It is important. He’s trying to build something that will last for years.
On the field, it’s as true as it was four years ago: Kirk Cousins must elevate the Vikings. Starting quarterbacks are the players who can most benefit from O’Connell’s vision.
On this day, a bevy of Viking legends from the past hang out with the current team, and Cousins likes it. , I can’t help but let my mind wander. He envisions creating something that he and his teammates will be proud of and how special it will be to visit this exact driving range one day. He’s part of the pain.
It all makes it groundbreaking—Kirk Cousins sure—it’s a lot sweeter.
“I want to win,” says Cousins. I want to play here for a long time. I want to leave footprints.
“The fact that every home game is sold out. We travel and purple and gold are in the stands. History. Does that mean you’ll be a member? That’s…”
he pauses he laughs And it’s no small thing.
When will the Vikings be happy again and you will be happy? You become daydreaming.
“We could go right down the list of NFL teams and in terms of what that means, we could beat any other team that could win the Super Bowl. It comes from opportunity, let’s go make it happen.”