It feels like Mike Zimmer has damn near universal support from Minnesota Vikings fans. He definitely has more support than any Vikings head coach since Bud Grant. I know that I absolutely love having Zimmer as the football coach in Minnesota. He was easily my top choice when the Vikings went through their coaching search in January of 2014. He would have been my top choice if they were going through that search a year earlier but that year there would have been a 1a. That was the year that Bruce Arians finally got his chance at a head coaching gig. The Arizona Cardinals were the wise team to hire him.
Mike Zimmer and Bruce Arians have some things in common. Zimmer was the Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator from 2008-13. Arians was the Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator from 2007-11. The two coaches schemed against each other twice a year from 2008-11 as rivals in the AFC North. The Steelers were the much better team in those years and Arians' offense got the better of Zimmer's defense more often than not. The more significant thing that Zimmer and Arians have in common is the ridiculous amount of time that each had to wait for their first NFL head coaching job. Zimmer coached football for 35 years before the Vikings hired him in 2014. Arians coached football for 38 years before the Cardinals hired him 2013. Two of the best, most respected football coaches around had to wait a combined 73 years before they were handed the keys to an NFL team. That's pathetic. It may not be fair but I often think of current San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Eric Mangini when I think of the wait that Zimmer and Arians had to endure. Mangini is a fine football coach but he was hired twice and fired twice as head coach between 2006 and 2010. If the New York Jets and/or the Cleveland Browns had hired Zimmer or Arians in those years they would probably still be employing one or the other. That's obviously more opinion than fact but it's still pretty much accepted by nearly everyone that Zimmer and Arians are two of the most promising head football coaches in the league. So why did each have to wait so long for that first shot?
I'll start with stupidity. The Tennessee Titans turned down Mike Zimmer in 2014. They had a shot at him before the Vikings did. They chose to hire Ken Whisenhut instead. They chose to fire Ken Whisenhut 21 games later. I should send thank you notes to the Titans every day. If it wasn't for their coaching decision in 2014 Zimmer wouldn't have the Vikings on the edge of the playoffs today. It's interesting that Whisenhut was the Cardinals coach that Arians replaced in 2013. Sometimes NFL decision-makers make stupid decisions. They are often more interested in appearances. They want to make that "splashy" hire rather than the right hire when they are looking for a new head coach. The hot, young quarterback guru. The big name college coach. Even the veteran re-tread is more appealing than the long-time assistant coach. Would Arians have even gotten his opportunity with the Cardinals if not for his successful interim gig with the Indianapolis Colts in 2012? Every team that was looking for a head coach for 2013 had an opportunity to see what Arians could do because Colts head coach Chuck Pagano had to fight leukemia. Not only did teams see what Arians could do as head coach they were able to see him do it under very difficult circumstances. Despite all of that, the Chicago Bears turned down Arians before the Cardinals had their chance to hire him. Just like the Titans and Whisenhut, the Bears hired and fired Marc Trestman, instead of hiring Arians. The Bears wanted their new coach to keep Lovie Smith's cover-2 defense. Arians had different plans. Why wouldn't he? The team fires Smith but wants to keep the defense that he was one of the best at running. That makes zero sense. The Bears coaching choice after firing Trestman was to bring in John Fox and his defense led by Vic Fangio. At least they didn't make the same mistake twice.
Teams should hire a head coach for who he is not for who they want him to be. Teams should also be aware that the only thing that matters is wins. Those are the only appearances that matter when the games start. I would love to be a "fly-on-the-wall" of one of these interviews. Zimmer and Arians have both said that honesty is their policy. They have been honest in their interviews so they haven't always said what these decision-makes have wanted to hear. I just don't understand why any team would hire a coach that simply parrots a response simply because that's what the team wants to hear. Everything that I've ever heard from Zimmer and Arians is what I'd want to hear from a football coach. If I was playing for him or hiring him. As head coaches they routinely say everything that I want to hear as a fan of that team.
I'm absolutely ecstatic that Mike Zimmer is the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings. I'm so glad that his last job interview was with the Vikings. Arizona Cardinals fans should be ecstatic that Bruce Arians is the head coach of their team. As a football fan I'm ecstatic that each of these fantastic coaches finally got their long-deserved shot. The NFL is better with them as head coaches in it.
I highly recommend the A Football Life on Bruce Arians now airing on NFL Network. Every one of these episodes is terrific but the Arians episode is one of the best.
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