The Minnesota Vikings took a chance on Mike Zimmer when they hired him to be their new head coach in 2014.
Zimmer had been an assistant in the NFL for 20 years before the Vikings gave him his first opportunity to be a head coach at the age of 58. But it’s not like he didn’t get any chances to interview for head coaching vacancies before landing with Minnesota.
Zimmer is just known for always speaking what’s on his mind and he’s not going to say something that he doesn’t believe in. His bluntness is part of the reason why it took him 20 years to become an NFL head coach, but it’s also something that caused the Vikings to hire him.
Minnesota Vikings head coach can relate to Eric Bieniemy
For the last few years, Eric Bieniemy has been one of the most talked-about assistant coaches in the entire league. Most have assumed the current Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator would have landed a head coaching job in the NFL by now, but this hasn’t been the case.
Instead, Bieniemy has continued to watch from the outside as head coaching vacancies around the league fill up. As of Friday, three of the seven current NFL head coach openings have already been filled. Interestingly enough, none of the three guys that have been hired so far (Arthur Smith, Urban Meyer, Robert Saleh) have spent time as a head coach in the league.
The teams that have filled their vacancy obviously weren’t scared to take a chance on someone who has never been an NFL head coach before. Bieniemy is still hoping to be one of the league’s new head coaches before the start of next season.
So why hasn’t the Chiefs offensive coordinator been given a head-coaching opportunity yet? There are several reasons why some believe Bieniemy continues to be passed over, including some questionable behavior in the past and confusion about what exactly his duties are as Kansas City’s offensive coordinator since he isn’t the primary play-caller.
There have also been reports of Bieniemy interviewing poorly with teams when meeting with them about their head coach opening. This is the part that sounds very Zimmer-esque.
Zimmer was known for not being the greatest during his interviews for head coaching jobs around the league, mostly because he probably didn’t have a problem telling people what they didn’t want to hear.
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Like Bieniemy, Zimmer was passed over for multiple head coach vacancies until Minnesota decided to take a chance on him in 2014. Right now, Bieniemy is just waiting for a team to come along and give him that chance.