Vikings obsessed with spitting on Mike Zimmer’s grave this offseason

His time with the franchise ended poorly, but let’s not act like Mike Zimmer didn’t provide the Minnesota Vikings with a ton of positive memories either.

Only two head coaches in the history of the franchise won more games than Mike Zimmer in his tenure with the Minnesota Vikings. Despite this achievement, some have made it seem like the Vikings moving on from Zimmer is similar in ways to the Jacksonville Jaguars’ recent dismissal of infamous slimeball, Urban Meyer.

Sure, things fell apart for Minnesota during Zimmer’s last couple of seasons with the franchise. But should this erase all of the happiness that he helped create for the Vikings during his first handful of years with the organization?

According to the messaging that Minnesota is currently attempting to spread, Zimmer was just some grumpy old guy who did nothing good for the franchise during his eight years as the team’s head coach.

Mike Zimmer deserves better than the disrespect he’s received from the Minnesota Vikings

Prior to Zimmer’s arrival, the Vikings were doing their best impression of a dumpster fire with three last-place NFC North finishes in four years, two head coaching changes, and a random playoff appearance mixed in between.

There was no stability or structure in Minnesota during the first few years of the 2010s. Zimmer was hired in 2014 because the Vikings were in desperate need of a head coach who would hold his players accountable.

Other NFL teams had passed on Zimmer in the past due to his blunt nature of telling people things exactly how they were, regardless of whose feelings are hurt. When he was hired by Minnesota in 2014, that is exactly what they needed.

Zimmer’s players knew he was ready to run through a wall for them and many of them were ready to do the same. His first four seasons with the Vikings resulted in two playoff berths, two NFC North titles, and one appearance in the NFC Championship.

After that 2017 season, however, is when the first few screws seemed to come loose in the foundation that Zimmer was attempting to build for Minnesota.

He had a vision for the team, and it didn’t include spending a ton of money on a quarterback. Despite his hesitations, Vikings general manager Rick Spielman still decided to go out and give a lucrative contract to free-agent quarterback Kirk Cousins.

Sure, Minnesota’s performance at the quarterback position has improved since the signing of Cousins. But other areas of the team like the defense and the overall amount of leadership in the locker room suffered greatly in the four years since the veteran passer was handed a truckload of cash from the Vikings in 2018.

The things that suffered were the things that Zimmer was working on perfecting before Minnesota signed Cousins, and once Spielman decided he wanted the roster to go in a different direction, that’s when the head coach’s vision never had a chance to succeed.

Without being given the proper tools for any of his plans to work, Zimmer wasn’t able to lead the Vikings back to the level of success that he had helped them achieve in 2017, and it resulted in his firing earlier this year.

Minnesota players have recently been talking about how the vibe in the building has been more positive and people are more friendly than how things were in the recent past.

It’s very easy to believe that to be true, but Zimmer was likely just fed up with not getting the proper help he needed to help the Vikings win more games. Many would probably act in a similar way if presented with the same scenario.

It certainly got to a point where Minnesota needed to move on from the head coach, but let’s not act that what happened inside the Vikings facilities was anywhere close to what happened with Meyer in Jacksonville.

Zimmer brought a lot of happiness to Minnesota during his tenure. Despite this, it seems like the Vikings are now trying to erase him from their history.