Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - The Defector's Kalyn Kahler talks about the Vikings' nepotism and chaos

Episode Date: January 4, 2022

Matthew Coller and The Defector's Kalyn Kahler talk about her in-depth piece about nepotism in the NFL, which centers around the Vikings. Why former Vikings players told her that Adam Zimmer's promotion to co-defensive coordinator was confusing. Is Gary Kubiak still involved in the Vikings offense with Klint Kubiak at OC? Why did the Vikings hire Klint when he hadn't had previous experience at OC before? What does this tell us about the way the organization is being run over the last few years? Get your NFL tickets at TickPick.com/Insider Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Want to remind you before we get started, the TickPick is the exclusive ticketing partner of Purple Insider and the Blue Wire Network. TickPick should be your first choice to buy football tickets because they save fans money by never charging service fees ever. hello welcome to another episode of purple insider matthew collar here and returning to the show is kaylin kaylor and this time kay, we're not just messing around and talking about quarterbacks or midseason awards or the goofy things that we do when I bring you on the show. This time, we have got some Vikings-related reporting that you have done and actually tremendous reporting. Kalen writes for Defector, formerly MMQB, Bleacher Report, everything that's famous. And you have done an article called

Just How Big of a Problem is Nepotism in NFL Coaching? And I'm sure as I read that, everyone goes, oh, because of the Vikings situation. And I'm going to tell you the truth as we start here, is I had not really thought about this all that much in the NFL in general. It's just kind of a facts of life sort of thing. Uh, everyone's kid gets to coach a team and that's just how it is. But your

reporting really adds such great depth to it. So I want to ask you where you'd like to start with this issue as it relates to the Minnesota Vikings, because you, you wrote such a great piece in depth. Um, do you want to start with the second paragraph possibly as it relates to the Vikings? And I'll start with, I can't remember like when in the reporting process I decided I was going to go hard on the Vikings and like get, you know, do some real reporting on the Vikings. I don't, I can't remember when it was I think at some point because I started off by just going through every NFL coaching staff because like these stats don't exist anywhere um really like the NFL has a diversity report and they they had a they kind of had a stat in 2020 about this but it seemed really low to me like I think their number was like 63 coaches are related

and I was like no no no no no no so I don't know what their criteria was like 63 coaches are related. And I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. So I don't know what their criteria was. I do not know what they were counting as a coach. Cause like, you know how many titles there are in staffs, like an NFL staff can be from like 20 to 35 people, just depending on, you know, what organization you're at. There's a wide range of, you know, how many people are actually on a staff for coaching. And there's all these weird titles, like coaching analysts are sometimes coaches coach, you know, how many people are actually on a staff for coaching. And there's all these weird titles, like coaching analysts, or sometimes coaches, coach, you know, assistant, you know, quality control, all that I would consider to be coaches. So I did like all my own stats. So it

took me like a straight week of just like, my eyes were like bleeding from like looking at coaching staff websites. I mean, it was horrible. And I actually have a whole document of notes, like maybe I'll make this into, you know, what we would call a blog someday of just weird details and people's bios and like weird things that I was picking up on as I kept like scanning these bios. So anyways, you know, right away, I knew the Vikings were going to be one of the teams I talked about because even, you know, last year was even worse when Gary Kubiak was on the staff obviously because you had you had two Kubiaks you had two Zimmers and you had two Pattersons um and so they they had three father-son combos and this year the team with the most was the Raiders who had four so the Vikings

last year would have been like at the top of father-son combos so I knew the Vikings were going to be like playing into this in some way but But I think at some point, like once I had all my like data, I have like a spreadsheet of like every coach. And it's funny because like I'm realizing today, like I missed some like somebody texted me and was like, wait, did you have Kevin Gilbride Jr.? And I'm like, no, he's a Panthers like defensive analyst. And I was like, oh, no, I didn't get him. So now there's 112, not 111. So

it's just adding up. Um, anyway, so I was like, okay, the Vikings going to be part of this. And, um, at some point I started reporting, just like reaching out to people and somebody mentioned like little Zim quote, quote, little Zim, Adam Zimmer. And I was I was like okay let me like dig into this a little bit more so then I started like actually trying to report with you know sources around the Vikings that I know um you know people a former player who's quoted in the story so that's kind of where it where the Vikings like played in because I was like okay you know promoting like, if he had promoted Adam Zimmer, like, an only Adam Zimmer, maybe it wouldn't be like, as egregious. But the fact that you promoted him alongside, like a man who is twice his age, and literally twice as experienced as him. And then I'm talking

to a former player who was like, yeah, that didn't go over well with us. You know, he's like, we were all like, what? And, you know, and so that to me is like why it really stands out. I mean, there are plenty of other examples of a coach promoting their, you know, child to be a coordinator. But nothing really in the current league right now as it is, like nothing stood out to me the way that Mike and Adam did because of the weird. And first of all, what is a co-defensive coordinator like no one else does that like miami has two offensive coordinators which is also really weird and like has their offense been good no like you know so i don't know that having two coordinators is ever a good idea i don't really know what it means like what at one point when i was reporting this story, some, one of the, uh, one of the sources like close to the team that I interviewed

was like, literally, what does that mean? He was like, I have no idea what that he's like, when that happened, we were all like, what? Like, and obviously, you know, the defensive coordinator of the Vikings is not really even a defensive coordinator because Mike Zimmer is the defensive coordinator. So, I mean, you're really just promoting your son for, you know, for it to look good on his resume and also to pay him more money. So the whole thing is just really strange to me. And so that's why I decided to be like, okay, let me see how this impacts the team. And I think that's why it's such an important anecdote is because, you know, we hear from the player who's like, yeah, we saw right through that. And then we hear from two sources near the organization who both

say we noticed essentially, like we noticed and, you know, he's like attached to his dad's hip. One of them told me he's like attached to his hip, which you could, we can see that as reporters. If you watch the sideline and you can see a little bit, I haven't seen any Vikings practice recently, obviously, you, you know, you're able to see a little bit of it. And at training camp, you can see a lot of it. So you're able to see that way more than I've been able to see that. And so, you know, I think it's, I think it is interesting, like how it can affect morale on a staff, like, and that's kind of what I tweeted today is like, the point of this is like, you know, one, like, let's look at this as a barrier to increasing diversity hiring,

because it is one of many barriers that exist right now with an NFL hiring. And then two, it's not like it doesn't affect people. Like if you're like with with Shanahan and McVeigh, you know, they, right now, they're not on the same team as any relatives. And like they've I think they've proven like they should be where they are. So I don't think it's a problem with them specifically. But like when you have someone who's promoted who was a surprise and then that really trickles down to the rest of your staff where they're thinking, you know, what am I, what am I even do? What am I working for when like, I don't know, you know? So it's just interesting to see how that affects affects your staff and how

players really can pick up on that too. It's not like, it's not like it's meaningless. Okay. I'm dying to read this quote. The second paragraph of your um article here's the quote from a person close with the team no effing reason adam should be a dc nobody disliked him but nobody ever thought that he would be the coordinator let's put it that way and in comparison to andre patterson as you said patterson had a very robust resume as a defensive line coach and had been credited by the entire organization for a lot of success stories and development success stories along the way. And had been a right hand man to Mike Zimmer for a very long time.

They've known each other going all the way back to Dallas, I believe. And for them to be promoted at the same time, when you compare their resumes, a linebackers coach versus a defensive line coach is there is a difference there. And being a direct person who advises Mike Zimmer as Andre Patterson does versus Adam Zimmer in his role, it did feel to us like, okay, wow. And defensive coordinators, co-defensive coordinators, I've never heard of it before. But I think to your point that a lot of people with the team, and there's more quotes like this throughout, including from a former player, that the admiration for Andre Patterson is extreme with the players, especially. And you saw that even this year, Sheldon Richardson returned,

Everson Griffin returned, Stephen Weatherly returned. None of these have really worked out, but these are players who had left and then come back to play with Andre Patterson specifically because of their appreciation for him. They're not the only ones. Shamar Steffen did. Tom Johnson did. I mean, that's five guys right off the top of my head. Even, well, I guess Afadi Adenabo would have gone away and signed with another team and

then came back. So that's six players right there who came back after leaving to play with Andre Patterson, which I think says a lot about him. And in comparison, now Kendrickson Barr are great players. There's no doubt about it, but they're also top draft picks and so forth in a devalued position in comparison. And like you said, the experience is just completely different between these two. And you're right that people notice everything.

That when a coach says something in a postgame interview, like say dunks on Kellen Mond for no reason whatsoever, it's not lost on everybody. And this is something that I think mike zimmer has never quite really realized is that people notice this stuff and i i want to talk about the other side of this too on the offensive part with clint kubiak that mike zimmer has spent the entire year slamming clint kubiak not so subtly including after the game with the packers but you kind of made your own fate with in a win now type of season,

hiring someone that didn't have experience seemingly because they had so much respect for Gary Kubiak, which is understandable. Great career, NFL player, one of the legends of offensive football. But just because the last name is the same doesn't mean the play calls are going to be as good. Yeah. It's just, I mean, the Vikings are such a good example of this. I mean, it's just, it's so fascinating. And like, like the, the end of the story, when I get into Gary Kubiak and Clint Kubiak and that situation this year, you know, there was a source who said Gary's still involved. And to my understanding, it's, it's pretty involved. Now the Vikings did not comment, obviously. And when I asked Gary, in particular, when I, you know, brought this to him

and said, Hey, like, you know, as a dad, like, I'm sure it's pretty hard to step back and like, let your son like assume the role that you had last year. You know, how involved are you? And he said that he watches he was like i don't even watch the games i watch the film i was like okay um so he's watching the film and so then i'm like okay well where are you getting the film like you know coaches a lot of coaches will have guys around the league like send them stuff so i was trying to find out where he was getting it from and he like really just politically talked around the answer i asked literally like four times i'm like do you get it from cl And he like, really just politically talked around the answer. I asked

literally like four times, I'm like, do you get it from Clint? He said, no. I said, do you get it from the team? He said, no. He just said, I get it the best way I can, which is a really strange answer. So, you know, he just was very political about it, which, you know, totally, that's fine. I respect that. The metaverse. I think he got it from the metaverse. Yeah. So, you know, from my understanding and, you know, this from my understanding, he's pretty involved and it makes sense. You know, I heard last year he was giving Clint more and more responsibility, trying to sort of like prep him for the upcoming job. And then, you know, Gary told me that Rick and Mike did not ask him about Clint when they were doing the offensive coordinator hiring process last year, which I think is interesting, but, you know, I guess maybe they didn't need to because he'd already been on the staff and like they'd seen whatever they needed to see. So maybe that's true after all um but yeah i mean it's just

it's fascinating and and i think that anecdote is like and that's why i put it in there uh at the end is because it shows you there's i think there's 64 coaches right now who are sons of a current or former nfl coach and so the clint gary anecdote, if it's true that, which I heard from, you know, multiple people that, that Gary is still very involved. If that's the case, that is the benefit that you have if you are the son of a former NFL coach. Like, you know, if, if somebody else is promoted to offensive coordinator and they're not quite ready, I mean, what are they going to do? Like they, your average non-related coach is probably not going to have someone who is going through the tape, you know, who is like watching the film and, and giving comments on

a regular basis, you know, who's not on staff. And I, and I think that's the really interesting part. And that's what I don't fully understand is like, I know he wanted to retire. And I asked him this question and I can't remember what he said. I think he was like, oh, I was already a senior offensive advisor, like the first year that he was in Minnesota. So he's like, I know what that's like. And that was really nice. But now I just really wanted to step away. So, you know, take that for whatever it means.

But that's what I don't understand is it's like, okay, you know, if you're going to be involved, just have some kind of like consultant title instead of being this sort of like shadow OC figure for your son. But I think that goes back to who gets the credit, you know, wanting Clint to get the credit. Yeah. And it's just unfair. And I think the other point is when you read this, it's unfair to these sons in a way. I don't know why they want to work for their fathers when you think about it. Like go make your name somewhere else. Like you can work. And that happens a lot too is, you know, they'll call in favors with somebody who works for another team. Like, Hey, can you hire my son over here? Because I think some guys in the league actually recognize that it's,

it might harm their career if they're working for you, because they're never going to get the credit. They're never going to be seen as their own person. It's always going to be, Oh, that's Gary's son. Oh, that's, you know, that's Mike's son. That's why he got the job, right? And so, like, even if Adam Zimmer, Adam Zimmer, I'm not in the position room. He could be a really smart linebackers coach. It's not, you know, that's not what I have heard, but I'm not in the room.

It's very possible that he could be a very smart linebackers coach who has really helped. You know, I didn't talk to Anthony Barr or Eric Hendricks. He might have really helped them. I don't know. You know like the vikings didn't make anyone available to me so i wasn't able to interview any of those current linebackers he could be a good position coach um but we're always going to question it because he's on the same team as his dad and like somebody the team executive i interviewed for the story um you know brought up the question of like well you know would anyone else hire him as a defensive coordinator and I was like I don't how do I find out you know like how do you report that you can't really report that because I'm not going to just go call up you know other general managers and be our owners and be

like hey if you had a defensive coordinator opening like are you interested in Adam Zimmer like they would probably be like I'm not like super familiar or maybe they are, maybe they aren't, but it's not like they've like studied him enough to prepare for, to answer that question. So it's kind of like, how do you report that? That's like so subjective. It's like impossible to report.

But I think when you're on the same team as your father, like you will always face that. And that's why I just don't understand why these guys do that. Hey, everybody, Minnesota football is in full swing and there is no need to exhaust yourself searching all over the internet for Minnesota football tickets because TickPick, that is T-I-C-K-P-I-C-K is the original no fee ticket site. It's the only one you'll ever need as your go-to for football tickets. Tick pick got rid of all those awful service fees that the other ticket sites charge, which allows them to guarantee the best prices on all of your tickets.

Don't believe it. If you can find better prices on the same seats on another site, tick pick will give you 110% of the difference. Now we've had lots of exciting games at US Bank Stadium this year. There are still more to go and always interesting when Chicago comes to town. So you're going to want to go to TickPick.com and check it out and make sure it's TickPick.com, TickPick.com slash insider, because you can save $10 on your first order for Minnesota tickets. That's TickPick.com slash insider. Yeah, I totally agree. I was the coach's kid in little league at one time, but I don't know if that's all that comparable right but um you know that's the cap the little

league teams yeah right I think that a dad has to actually coach in that situation but um my dealings with Adam Zimmer over the years have been very positive um and you know listening to his press conferences each week I don't doubt his football acumen that he knows football very well and I think he's handled the position quite well but um just from a coming out there every week and talking about the team and talking about the players and things like that the overall defensive performance has been putrid over the last two years since this happened so i mean how much that connects to him being a co-defensive coordinator i don't know because we all assumed that it was just mike zimmer's defense anyway and what difference does it make that it wouldn't have been different if George Edwards had just stayed and they would have probably the same defense.

Maybe I'm wrong. I mean, George Edwards was a very accomplished defensive mind. He just was not really into talking with the media and things like that. So we never really understood fully how he was doing his job as much as I think we do with Adam Zimmer. But I think that, you know, the point would be that they've really failed on offense and defense this year with a co-defensive coordinator who is a coach's son that was not qualified. And as far as I've heard, has never interviewed for a defensive coordinator job anywhere else. And an offensive coordinator whose dad is maybe drawing up the first 15 plays, possibly.

It was sort of mysterious how their opening scripts would be amazing. And then they would totally go ghost the rest of the game. You've had. But the thing is, too, that the players are just no dummies. I mean, they know what's going on here. And there has been a lot of frustration from adam phelan at times from justin jefferson at times where clint kubiak has been flat out called out by these guys i mean jefferson basically saying dude can we not run alexander madison at the goal line uh can we

just throw me the ball but yeah you have mike zimmer at the same time like last night last night like why is just the game plan not get the ball to justin jefferson right because mike zimmer wants them to run what are you come on right right it was very frustrating to watch and then zimmer even today this is a tangent but talking about how well we only ran the ball 11 times uh, you're down 20 to three at halftime. So usually you're not going to run more than 11 times after that. But I think that it's very hard though for a first time play caller. And we saw this with DeFilippo. He wasn't a first timer, but almost. And then Clint Kubiak to have the same sort of clout with Mike Zimmer as someone like

Gary Kubiak, who he could basically say, hey, if that's what Gary wants, that's what Gary gets because the guy is a legend and is proven. There has not been that type of respect. There was not a single comment and there were reasons to criticize Gary. There was not a single comment being critical of Gary Kubiak from Zimmer or anybody else last year. There have been dozens pointed at Clint Kubiak. And I think to your point, it's made for a very difficult situation, putting someone in the deep end like this who was not ready to do it and then saying, oh, hey, by the way, all of our jobs are on the line. And we have a superstar wide receiver who will definitely turn on you.

I mean, and not even to mention Kirk Cousins and all the things that go along with that. Yeah, I mean, I was going to say it's already probably the hardest offensive coordinator job in the NFL working with Mike Zimmer. So, you know, not only is it, you know, if your first time, it's going to be, whoa, like, oh, my gosh, here we are. But, like, yeah, I mean, that is really difficult. And I wonder when Scott Turner waser was offensive coordinator i mean that's

another guy who was a former head coach obviously he quit nor if you mean yeah nor turn oh sorry nor yes thank you um can't keep all the relatives straight but scott turner was the quarterback coach but when nor was the oc who had been a head coach himself, almost kind of like a Gary Kubiak type of figure of that level of experience, and I know he quit, he resigned midseason out of frustrations with Mike Zimmer, but did Zimmer openly criticize him as well, or was it sort of the way he treated Gary? It was publicly mostly the same way that he treated Gary. There were a few in between the lines things. The most in between the lines thing that happened was they hired Pat Schirmer to be

the, using air quotes here, tight ends coach, as if you hire Pat Schirmer to be the tight ends coach. You hire Pat Schirmer in case you have to fire Norv Turner and then you can bring in the West Coast system, which is what Mike Zimmer really wanted for case Keenum to run or Sam Bradford to run at that time. And maybe even was thinking about it for Teddy Bridgewater. And then, you know, eventually it worked out really well and Schirmer was great.

But when you have, when you have one person quit, then it's like, oh man, what's wrong with Norv? What's his deal. But then you have the another guy you know get fired and then you have another guy who you're criticizing in public and

you know mixed in was schirmer who got a head coaching job after that that didn't go particularly well but you know like it worked out for him um but but even with di filippo like there's a lot to talk about even there with john di filippo about how they were pretty good midway through the season. And then Mike Zimmer starts criticizing John DeFilippo for, you'll never guess, not running the ball enough. And then everything sort of comes apart. And I think that what this gets to centrally with the Minnesota Vikings, and I'm sure you found this in your reporting, but maybe you have more on it is just the disarray of the Mike Zimmer era in the second half of it past 2017. And really that it went away because of the number of players who had been

together for a long time, sort of galvanized. But after that, after it's been a lot of new faces and moving in and out, it has been chaotic, I think. And this, and this is part of it. And it's been a lot of new faces and moving in and out, it has been chaotic, I think. And this, and this is part of it. And it's like, people have noticed that this kind of thing, and I think it's made for a difficult environment for them to succeed in. Yeah. And, and I think it's interesting. Like I, I always think I'm assuming he's getting fired next week.

Same. I could be wrong, but I'm assuming that that staff is getting fired. And I, I like highly doubt he will get another head coaching opportunity just because of how obvious it is that he's unable to work with offensive coordinators. Like, it's a pattern. You just mentioned all of it. So like it's a pattern that is established. And if I was an owner, like I don't want to deal with that. So I don't think, you know, Mike McCarthy gets another chance.

Obviously he's not a defensive-minded coach, but there was never, I mean his problem was with his quarterback but there was never like a inter-staff turmoil the way that we've seen over and over again with meg zimmer so i i think it's interesting and i think yeah i think it goes back to you what you brought up earlier of like him not understanding like the public ramifications like that people are noticing like what's going on and what's being said and I think it's interesting like like here in Chicago I kept thinking that the players were gonna quit on Matt Nagy at some point because things were going so badly but I mean we saw

this last year with him too like they and I and so now I'm so cynical but now I actually do believe it like that they like playing for him because like I mean yes they beat the Giants who are just a hot mess on Sunday like I was at that game on Sunday and that was like the single worst quarterbacking performance by Mike Lennon I've ever seen in my life it was spectacular I literally just started I only was taking notes on every passing attempt and how it went because it was so funny. Anyways, like they had negative 10 net passing yards and then, you know, gross passing was 24 yards. It was so bad.

So, okay. Anyways, what was it? Sean Mannion in comparison was great. Yeah, he was great. But my point of going to the Bears was that the bears are still playing like fighting and like you know they're able to beat bad teams and the vikings you know obviously they played the packers that's a really really good team that's a team that is probably going to make the super bowl i would expect um or i i would predict for this season but and i think i'm surprised and you probably

have a better sense of this than i do because i haven't talked to any players and you know obviously um adam and jj have been critical of the offense as you, as you mentioned earlier, but like, I don't know, Patrick Peterson was very supportive of Zimmer last night. I just feel like there's not, and this could be a, yeah. Okay. And he wasn't. Well, he was, he said, you know, he's the right man for the job, but also couldn't figure out why he wasn't tracking Devante Adams throughout

the game. So it was a little bit of talking out of both sides of his mouth of like, he was never going to say until the second half. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And he said, I don't know why I couldn't figure out why. And it's actually the second time in a postgame press conference where Patrick Peterson has openly questioned Mike Zimmer's decisions. But then he said he's the right man for the jobs was like, but what's he going to say? Yeah, they fire him. You know, Peterson tries to kind of weave in between those types of things.

Yeah, I was going to say, I'm surprised that like and I haven of expected more of like, not a mutiny, but like more of a fuck this guy attitude or, you know, stuff on social media. Obviously we can't go into the locker rooms. And I think we would learn a lot more about this if we could, which I'll never stop talking about that because I'm just never going to get over it. Anyways, but like, what's your sense? Like,

do you feel like players are pissed at Zimmer? I think that they've had enough. Yeah. I mean, really, really look at the final month plus of this season. Their whole thing was our guys fight, our guys fight,

our guys fight. We've played a lot of close games and our guys fight okay well you in detroit you got down 20 to 6 and then had to try to come back and then you lose the game at the end and then mike zimmer uses this as like oh you know i hate to see it we lost it at the end what a weird thing dude you were down 20 to 6 yeah the worst team in football what are we talking about here um he's done this a lot. And I think that players can't stand this either. And I know this from previous experiences with this similar thing where this whole deal of nothing is my fault. And, well, if my guy hadn't just blown it at the end, like, dude, you were down 20 to six.

Like, you couldn't stop Jared Goff, who's 28th ranked by PFF, man. Come on. And they went through this in 2016 where the corners literally went rogue like they decided that they were going to play how they wanted to play in the game and who knows it's possible Patrick Peterson did the same thing yesterday I'm not sure but uh yeah I mean so this has happened this has happened before where there's been this clash between Zimmer and the players especially in 2016 um so it's not unusual, but so they lose to Detroit. They, it was a one score game to San Francisco,

but they got their faces mostly beat in the 49ers, missed the field goal at the end. They got a last drive. It didn't work, you know, that kind of thing. And then you have the Rams game where they're gifted three interceptions. They don't really put up much of a fight in that one. They get a last, they get a last minute touchdown, that kind thing oh one score game like yeah not really you were down two scores and then they have a chance to dig their heels in and give a fight to the green bay packers and

their game plan is a complete disaster on offense and i didn't even think i know it's not i don't think it's the hot take but i don't even think Sean Mannion did like super bad. Like you're talking about with Glennon. I think that they just didn't have Justin Jefferson in the game plan. And then tell me if this, tell me if this helps anything. You're Clint Kubiak trying to do your job. And you're like, Mike, we're down by 17 points. I think we're going to have to throw the football. And he's like, run.

What? What do I do? I mean, what do I do? I don't know. You ever tried to learn something and someone's over your shoulder at your computer and you're just like, get out of here. I just can't imagine. So, uh, I think that the last month of this had a very players want to go home feel. And I predicted the score. I think I actually almost got it right. I predicted 38, 10 last week because I thought this is the one where they officially say, all right,

Mike, we're done. And it's going to be interesting next week's game. Cause these it's meaningless again. So, well, yesterday was not meaningless next week for the Vikings is meaningless. Um,

and for the bears, um, I'll be interested to see. Cause I mean, those are two, like the bears comparison i made before where they're like still very much playing hard it'd be really interesting to see how the vikings come out in that game um and if they have the effort there or not um and actually when you

were talking about uh it reminded me um so the former vikings player talked to, this didn't go into the story because it was like two Vikings tangent, but I asked him do you notice when Zimmer throws players under the bus? Like Kirk all the time. The defense last year on Christmas Day when the Saints scored what, 52 points or something um and he he specifically brought up that christmas day game um this former player and he was like yeah that was like we noticed and that did not you know that pissed us off essentially he was like that pissed me off and he's like you

know it doesn't affect you to the point where you know you're you're going to like stop doing your job because we're professionals. Like we're paid to play football if we're going to keep playing. But he's like, we know who you are. Like we know who you really are. So you can't, because that was the game where he said, I've never had a defense this bad was his quote, I think. Or this is the worst defense I've had. Something like superlative.

It was like a superlative of like, this is the absolute worst defense I've had. Which I relative it was like a superlative but like this is the absolute worst defense i've had which i guess you could say that's on him like but he didn't really take the blame he kind of took the blame for it in like this big paragraph quote but then he like started blaming like our guys need to play i think that's how it ended so it was like very much on the players as to why he, it was his worst defense. So, I mean, they hear that. I mean, you know, players talk all the time. Oh, I don't, I don't watch the media. I don't, you know, like I'm tunnel vision, but if it's your own team, like you're hearing it,

they're hearing it. And that does not have a positive impact on the locker room at all. And this former player actually said, it was kind of funny, I think he compared him to Trump, Mike Zimmer. Yeah, there has been that comparison made by some people. Yeah, because of the narcissism specifically. He was like the narcissistic attitude of like, I'm right. I'm always right. It's never any, it's never my fault. It's always somebody else's fault. He was like, he's literally like Trump. And I was like, oh, okay. Strong words.

So that's kind of what happens when you, that's, when that's your like public persona. I mean, yeah. For all of your Minnesota sports inspired goodsired goods, use the promo code PURPLEINSIDER when you go to SOTASTICK.COM. That is S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.COM. You can get their North State beanie, their Adam Thielen autographed shirts, Marcus Foligno fan club design for all of you hockey fans out there, and the one I always mention because it's the best one the randy moss disgusting act you can put that on a hoodie shirt or almost anything else and plus anything you want with skull on it soda stick has it again that's s-o-t-a-s-t-i-c-k.com perfect for gifts and

you can get that shipping free by using the code purple insider the headline to my article from last night uh while we're recording this on monday uh from sunday night's game is zimmer's snarky press conference is a fitting end i mean it's it's it was just like perfect for him to give up 37 points on defense and then be like you know what bleep kellen mond just like huh yeah like what cl Bleep Kellen Mond. Just like, huh? Yeah. Like what? Clint Kubiak, why didn't you run, idiot? What? And that will be, I think, a major part of his legacy here is just being sort of petty, pointing the finger at other people,

not willing to take responsibility when his defense gives up 52 points. And really the blaming started with, he started blaming Rick Spielman in training camp for not having enough depth on defense, which was in a way blaming Kirk for his contract. two points and really the blaming started with he started blaming rick spielman in training camp for not having enough depth on defense which was in a way blaming kirk for his contract and it's like oh now mike zimmer is not wrong but it's unnecessary right it's just like you're going and that is so much of mike zimmer right there it's like you're not wrong that anthony bar he said this once anthony bar has a tendency to coast like you're not wrong that sometimes he lacks intensity but why are you saying it right because to Anthony Barr right and

only Anthony Barr and and look as a reporter I am here for it but also like I recognize how much that alienates people now I wanted to circle back though on your piece because I think that there is a huge part of this that is the diversity part that the NFL is just so extremely bad when it comes to getting the right people who are qualified for the jobs. You hear this all the time. I just want the right people qualified for the jobs. I'm sorry, but Clint Kubiak was not the right person or qualified for the job. The proof is in the statistics that you put up this year

and the offense that you had that consistently no-showed in a lot of key situations. And Adam Zimmer, you could say the same thing. And I think about what a lot of black coaches have had to go through to even just get opportunities and how qualified they've had to be to get opportunities. And this is a blockade for them is that all the coaches who have been in football for a really long time are hiring their sons. And if, if they're putting them in defensive coordinator positions, I mean, that's a spot that gets a head coaching interview and you're, and Andre Patterson cannot get a head coaching interview as a co-defensive coordinator. It's, it's holding him back from any, I mean, if, if Andre Patterson was the defensive coordinator and they were top 10 defense this year and made the playoffs, which was, you know, plausible, he might get phone calls and he

might get opportunities. Um, but not as the co-defensive coordinator, almost no matter what happened. So I think that's a, that is a part that I appreciate that how much you dove into it in this article. Yeah. And I think it's, I've heard from a lot of people today, um, who read it and are like, oh my gosh, that's really great. And then I've heard, you know, I've heard from a lot of people today who read it and are like, oh my gosh, that's really great. And then I've heard, you know, I've heard a couple of people I send it to who are working for NFL teams in some capacity or who texted me because they read it. It's interesting. I think everybody agrees after they read it, like this isn't, this is a problem, but it's so human nature. And there's so many different forms of nepotism

that I couldn't cover all the forms in that story because it would be impossible. So I decided just to focus on relatives, like literal relatives by blood or marriage. That's who I focused on. But if you broaden it, I mean, every coaching staff has friends from college or friends from another team. And I don't know that there's anything necessarily wrong with that either, because you're going to hire people who you're familiar with. And that happens all the time, right? Like, if we're looking for a new writer for our site, it's probably someone's stuff that I've already read before, or like that comes recommended to me from somebody else. So like, that part I get, but

I had to narrow it to just relatives because it would have been so insane to cover any more than that. And I think, and so the people I heard from today, a lot of people were like, well, what's the solution? And I'm like, well, that's why I didn't have a solution in the article. I just wrote this to point it out to say, Hey, you know, no one's written this before. We should probably be paying attention to this because the NFL actually is also starting to pay attention to this. So like, this is something we should all be aware of. And so and like Troy Vincent told me, oh, no one has ever asked me about this. Like no reporter has ever come to me asking me about this. And it was two years ago now that he put it in the diversity and inclusion report. So that's kind of sad, like

that no one has asked him to go any further on this because he was like super passionate about it and was like taking notes during my call with him because like he didn't know there were a few teams that actually do have nepotism policies. He was like, oh, that's so interesting. Like I need to follow up with all 32 teams and like make sure or like find out what people are doing because most teams obviously didn't answer me or like wouldn't't tell me they're like, we can't disclose our hiring policies. Like, how dare you ask? And I'm like, okay, sorry, like, whatever. So I mean, they'll probably answer him because he works for the league office. So like, he'll have a much better result and getting those answers than I do. So he was like, oh, yeah, I'm going to follow up on this.

But there's no I mean, the what I was trying to say here is there's no easy answer to fix it. I think what Troy wants to do and I think is a really good, really good concept, very hard to implement, but a very good concept. Right now, the Rooney rule just applies to GM openings, head coach openings and coordinator openings. And then I think some roles on like business side of teams, but I don't know which roles specifically. But those are what it applies to, which is really good. But it needs to apply to, I think, every coaching position on an NFL team. Or at least maybe not, maybe you don't say, oh, you have to hire, you have to interview two minority candidates for all these positions, But at least you need to post a job somewhere. You need to interview more than one person.

Start there. Let's start there, because then then you're actually like doing what like everyone in corporate America has to do. Like, right. Even if I mean, like, I'll say every journalism job I've ever had. Well, let's see. How did I get the detector job? I saw, I actually saw it posted on Twitter, and then I applied. But I knew someone who used to work with them, so then I said, hey, can you tell someone there that I applied and, like, to look out for my application? And so he did, and that obviously really helped. But, like, you know, if I hadn't asked him that, would I have got the job? I'm not sure.

There were a ton of applications. So I worked that for sure, but nobody tapped me for that one. But all the other jobs I've had in journalism before I had been like, someone reached out to me to say, Hey, we want you to apply for this job. So then, you know, Oh, I have a good chance of getting this job. I was not the only person, but you still have a good, you have a good idea. Oh, I'm probably going to get this job. But all those jobs legally had to be posted somewhere. They had to be, even if, you know, the editor already knew, okay, you know, I'm interviewing these two people. It's going to be one of these two, but you still had to post it. So you still had to receive resumes and conduct a process. A lot of these assistant coaching jobs there is no process they just pick and head coaches can just hire whoever they want which we can debate whether that's good or bad i

mean most owners want their coach to be comfortable with who they're hiring and like hugh jackson said in that story like i want he let greg williams hire his son because he wanted greg williams to be successful i mean logically that does make sense, but it's like, I think just if we just started where every assistant coaching position had to have an interview process, it's not going to fix the problem, but at least then it would feel fair. Well, it worked out great for Hugh Jackson and Greg Williams. You know, I guess what I was thinking along the way is yeah, that that's absolutely true for radio, which is in my background, that even jobs where I was doing something else and a place wanted to hire me that they would say, all right, well, we have to interview people and you go, oh, wow, like I didn't know about you before. And you start to make more connections and say, well, maybe we have this other opening or something else like that. And it just gives people more opportunities.

So I think, for people in the organization, for players that this is kind of how they do business. And what you know is that, Hey, nobody's opinion is going to matter as much as the Zimmer family and that kind of thing, when it comes to how you feel as a player about your situation or anything like that. And it's, it's sort of been just maybe not the reason that it's all come apart or anything like that, but throw it in the bucket of things where you go, what was this? Why was this the way that it was when the staff was not like this necessarily before? And you know, I think, I think it's

just sort of a fascinating topic in general. The last thing I'll say, which I couldn't fully report, I heard this from one agent who told me that Mike Zimmer has a hard time hiring coaches because people know his reputation. I wasn't fully able to flesh that out. So I'm not confident like reporting that as fact, but I did hear that from one person. And I think it's hard to

report because so many of that stuff is like not reported. Like, you know, we don't always hear if someone doesn't want to interview somewhere or, I mean, we did, we did hear that Dan Quinn didn't want to interview for the Jaguars job. But, but we don't always hear like someone's not interviewing somewhere. So, and, and for all those, like I said before, for all those assistant coaching positions, like if you get lower than coordinator, it's not really making the news. Right. So it's hard to, it's hard to report that and see if that's real or not. But if that is true, that could be why there is so much nepotism on that staff. Um, because it's hard for him to get other people to work there maybe well do you think do you think maybe calling kevin stefanski disloyal for wanting an offensive

coordinator job could play a role there um probably right and i think i think it all ties into sort of the kingdom of zimmer and and how many people just manipulated along the way. And that's, I guess what happens when you get to the very end, it's not, it's not like it's quite urban Meyer going down in flames, but there's a lot of things after being here for this long,

where you see a lot of, a lot of patterns. So Kaylin, your, your reporting in general is always must read. But this, this was a spectacular article. Once again, just how big a problem

is nepotism in nfl coaching defector and people should follow you on twitter k-a-l-y-n that is k-a-l y-n-k-a-h-l-e-r kaylin kaylor awesome stuff i'm glad we could do this this is like hardcore we got we got into it here yeah football football baby all right thanks for your time thanks