Reporter reveals incredible confrontation he had with Mike Zimmer

Sep 19, 2021; Glendale, Arizona, USA; Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer in the first half against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Billy Hardiman-USA TODAY Sports

It is no secret that sometimes NFL figures and the media people that cover them find themselves at odds. Former Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer, however, seems to have taken that to the extreme.

In an appearance on “The Sports Talkers Podcast,” Pro Football Talk editor Mike Florio shared a story about a text interaction he had with Zimmer in March. Florio said Zimmer had texted him the night the Vikings signed Kirk Cousins to a contract extension and began blaming him for his firing.

“That night in March of this year, right about the time of the start of free agency, he started sending me some texts, and they were not nice,” Florio said. “He got some stuff off his chest. He thought that I was responsible for getting him fired, I started the groundswell. At a certain point, you can only take so much before you push back. It was spirited, to say the least. We both said what we had to say.”

The stories from the final year of Zimmer’s tenure as Vikings coach have been pretty remarkable. He had a bizarre fixation on Cousins that has become clear in other stories as well. One of Zimmer’s own assistants had a pretty scathing assessment of what life was like for the players at the end of his tenure.

Zimmer went 72-56-1 as coach of the Vikings, but it was pretty clear by the end that the time had come to move on. Maybe that was not clear to Zimmer, but it certainly seems that it was obvious to the team.