Three reasons why Everson Griffen is awesome

Over a month ago, Everson Griffen abruptly suffered personal emotional problems causing him to leave the Minnesota Vikings team and practice facility. This week, after dealing with his issues, the star defensive end returned to the facility and his team. Here’s why “Griff” is a special Viking we all missed.

Everson Griffen’s absence from the Minnesota Vikings has been hard on everybody. The football player that the team, coaching staff, and fans’ have relied upon to be an impact player and leader is more than an All-Pro defensive end, he is a spirit.

Getting him back to the Minnesota locker room and practice field feels good to all of us. It indicates that “Griff” is doing better, and is well enough to play for our team, even if it means getting onto the game field may take a step or two.

Here are a few reasons why Viking fans have a special place in their hearts for Everson Griffen.

1) Griffen took over as a defensive star almost seamlessly for Jared Allen

In 2011, Vikings’ mega-star defensive end Jared Allen had 22 sacks. If not for a triple-teaming in a season-ending game at Chicago (in which he had 3 sacks at the beginning of the fourth quarter), Allen would have eclipsed Michael Strahan’s NFL record 22.5 without much doubt. But turning 30 and getting married did something to Jared Allen, and in consecutive years his sack totals were cut in half.

Meanwhile, Everson Griffen, who joined the Vikings in 2010 as a fourth-round draft pick from USC, was on the come. Despite being considered a college player of some risk (some scouts doubted his maturity), Griffen was certainly learning some tricks from the master technician that was Allen, and by 2012, was matching the potential Hall-of-Famer in sack totals.

In the 2012 season finale at Green Bay, where the Vikings beat the Packers to advance to the playoffs, Griffen sacked Packers’ QB Aaron Rodgers three times.

In 2014, a new head coach named Mike Zimmer came to Minnesota and Jared Allen traveled Southeast to Chicago, where he would begin a swift ending to his superlative career. Meanwhile, the Minnesota brass gave Griffen a five-year, $42M contract, and “Griff” gave Zimmer a game-breaking first year as a Viking starter, which absolutely catapulted Minnesota from the league’s worst-ranked defense in 2013 to number 11 in 2014.

In consecutive years, the Vikings jumped to 5th in total defense, and last year were ranked number one, each year adding new significant contributors that followed Griffen’s lead.

2) His close relationship with Mike Zimmer and his teammates

In a 2018 season now almost eight weeks old, let’s all hope the emotional drama around the Vikings has settled down a bit.

There was the wild ride and placekicker nightmare in Green Bay, the shootout failure in Los Angeles, and the exhausting, watershed redemption in Philadelphia.

Yet beyond that was the conundrum and humiliation of the week three defeat at home. A game where everything seemed to go wrong and ended with a 27-6 loss to one of the worst teams in football, the Buffalo Bills.

Minnesota Vikings

Well, it doesn’t take a detective to surmise that the loss truly had more to do with Everson Griffen than it did than Bills’ rookie QB Josh Allen. His sudden departure from the Minnesota Vikings’ practice facility was a mysterious one, and certainly left both coaches and players both perplexed and disturbed.

Griffen’s arrest on Saturday before the Buffalo game most likely made football seem much smaller on the hearts’ of those people who are both paid to play the game and are devoted to their teammate.

It’s a cliche, but you hear everyone involved in the NFL say it over and over again. “Football is a family.” When a family member is in trouble, everything falls away. You just can’t transform yourself into someone who needs to put the job of execution, reaction, and collusion before that. It’s just not a human ability, and the Vikings clearly showed that reality in the Buffalo game.

3) Griffen’s combination of speed, energy, and heart–and that wicked “double-spin” move

At 6-foot-3, 270 pounds, Everson Griffen once ran a 4.46 40, measured a 34” vertical jump, and bench-pressed 225 pounds 32 times. A native of Arizona, where Griffen went to the same high school as Pro Football Hall of Fame Viking guard Randall McDaniel, he was a blue-chip athlete that excelled not only in football but also in the strength events of track-and-field.

Watching Griffen perform as a Viking since becoming a starter in 2014 has not only been a joy, but a bit of a wonder. Not only does Griffen have the power to back up the most powerful of offensive tackles, but he has always shown the quickness and tactical acumen to beat them with hand and shoulder moves.

And he has that incredible, almost unbelievable double-spin move. If you have never seen it, check it out here.

Also, for all of Everson Griffen’s physical abilities, the guy has always had the means to wear his heart on his sleeve in a Viking uniform. He seems like he’s enjoying himself, having fun playing this crazy game of professional football.

Considering the fact that we as fans, (after having waited so long for our team to win it all), take these games harder than many of the guys playing them, “Griff’s” vigor, his sometimes goofy and charging dauntlessness, makes it easier on us. Sometimes, we all have to remember it’s just a game.

So it’s nice to see Everson Griffen as the big kid in the yard, a good kid, a kid’s who’s stronger and faster than everyone else and loves to tackle the guy with the football. And it’s good to see him back.

The best part is that he’s on our team.