Parcells told Zimmer: This isn’t a situation where success is impossible
Aug 31
Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer and Bill Parcells spoke twice Tuesday after Teddy Bridgewater's injury, Peter King of MMQB reports.
Zimmer considers Parcells the closest thing to a pro football mentor that he has had—for a total of about 20 minutes. The first time was mid-afternoon when Zimmer didn’t know for certain the diagnosis of quarterback Teddy Bridgewater—and the fate of his Super Bowl-contending team, after Bridgewater went down without contact in a simple practice drill in Eden Prairie, Minn. But when they talked later in the afternoon, Zimmer had a pretty good idea that the injury suffered by Bridgewater was season-ending.
“There are situations that won’t allow you to succeed,” Parcells told Zimmer. “I don’t think this is one of them.”
“I told him, ‘The first thing you need to know is this: Everyone in the organization, and that includes some of the players and the coaches, are going to think they have an excuse now,” Parcells said. “Once the shock is over, probably 48 hours from now, they’re all gonna come to you and look at you and say, ‘What are you gonna do?’ Because you’re charged with winning games now, no matter what you have on your team. You need to figure out what works—what recipe works. And tomorrow morning, once the shock wears off, nobody’s gonna give a s---. It’s his problem. He’s gotta figure out how to win now.”
“I went through this,” Parcells said. “We had a backup quarterback who was unproven, Jeff Hostetler, and I remember vividly hearing all the experts then say, ‘No one’s ever won the Super Bowl with such an unproven guy.’ I said to my players, ‘We are not losing because we’re playing Jeff Hostetler. I guarantee you that.’ There were ways to win those games, and it was up to us to figure them out.
“There are ways to win these games. [Zimmer] has a good running game. You know he can coach defense and they’ve got a good defense. Al Davis had some great advice for me once, and I told [Zimmer] this: You’re driving the train, and there’s 100 sets of eyes on you from behind. Players, coach, front office. They’re all screaming, ‘You gotta do something! What are you gonna do?’ And you’re going to have to figure it out.”
Aug 31
Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer and Bill Parcells spoke twice Tuesday after Teddy Bridgewater's injury, Peter King of MMQB reports.
Zimmer considers Parcells the closest thing to a pro football mentor that he has had—for a total of about 20 minutes. The first time was mid-afternoon when Zimmer didn’t know for certain the diagnosis of quarterback Teddy Bridgewater—and the fate of his Super Bowl-contending team, after Bridgewater went down without contact in a simple practice drill in Eden Prairie, Minn. But when they talked later in the afternoon, Zimmer had a pretty good idea that the injury suffered by Bridgewater was season-ending.
“There are situations that won’t allow you to succeed,” Parcells told Zimmer. “I don’t think this is one of them.”
“I told him, ‘The first thing you need to know is this: Everyone in the organization, and that includes some of the players and the coaches, are going to think they have an excuse now,” Parcells said. “Once the shock is over, probably 48 hours from now, they’re all gonna come to you and look at you and say, ‘What are you gonna do?’ Because you’re charged with winning games now, no matter what you have on your team. You need to figure out what works—what recipe works. And tomorrow morning, once the shock wears off, nobody’s gonna give a s---. It’s his problem. He’s gotta figure out how to win now.”
“I went through this,” Parcells said. “We had a backup quarterback who was unproven, Jeff Hostetler, and I remember vividly hearing all the experts then say, ‘No one’s ever won the Super Bowl with such an unproven guy.’ I said to my players, ‘We are not losing because we’re playing Jeff Hostetler. I guarantee you that.’ There were ways to win those games, and it was up to us to figure them out.
“There are ways to win these games. [Zimmer] has a good running game. You know he can coach defense and they’ve got a good defense. Al Davis had some great advice for me once, and I told [Zimmer] this: You’re driving the train, and there’s 100 sets of eyes on you from behind. Players, coach, front office. They’re all screaming, ‘You gotta do something! What are you gonna do?’ And you’re going to have to figure it out.”
