Should the Vikings be concerned about the health of Mike Zimmer?

The health of the Minnesota Vikings head coach could be at risk due to COVID-19.

Just last week, Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer celebrated his 64th birthday. In 2020, he’ll be the oldest Vikings head coach since Jerry Burns was leading the team in 1991 at 64-years-old.

Despite his age, Zimmer has been able to adapt to the evolution of the NFL during his coaching career and it’s part of the reason why he’s remained in the league for so long.

As most are aware, the older someone gets, the more their health begins to trend downward. Other than a scare he had with his eye in 2016, Zimmer’s health hasn’t really played a factor during his time as Minnesota’s head coach.

Should the Minnesota Vikings be precautious with their head coach when it comes to COVID-19?

With the recent news of multiple NFL players testing positive for COVID-19 coming out on Monday, the guys over at Bleeding Purple attempted to figure out what sort of impact the virus could have on the Vikings during the upcoming season.

Both agreed that the chances of a player being affected by the virus seem pretty low since it tends to have a bigger impact on people who have weak immune systems. The discussion then shifted over to the possibility of a coach catching the virus and what that could mean for a team like Minnesota in 2020.

With Zimmer being 64-years-old, he’s right on the border of being considered high-risk when it comes to COVID-19. According to the CDC, people who are 65 and older are among those who could be severely impacted by the virus.

Could their head coach basically being considered high-risk result in the Vikings taking precautions that include not letting Zimmer coach on the sidelines or attend the team’s practices? Could Minnesota force their head coach to conduct most of his job in a virtual manner?

Zimmer might not want to follow any of the precautions the Vikings set in place for him this year. But these are things that could potentially save his life. Minnesota has to do everything they can to not only prevent Zimmer from catching the virus, but every other coach on their staff who falls near the high-risk classification as well.

The Vikings are far from being the only team around the NFL who will have to possibly think of some alternate methods for how their head coaches will do their job in 2020. A number of other coaches around the league including Bruce Arians, Bill Belichick, and Pete Carroll are all over the age of 65, which would technically put them at an even higher risk than Zimmer.

There’s been a lot of talk about what the NFL will do if players begin to test positive for COVID-19 during the middle of the upcoming season. But what everyone should really be focused on is what the league plans to do if some of their older coaches start to contract the virus.

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