The Philadelphia Eagles held the city's first Super Bowl parade on Feb. 8. Vikings GM Rick Spielman and coach Mike Zimmer came to Philly to interview Eagles quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo in the hours after the parade and convinced him to become their offensive coordinator.
Pat Shurmur, who had that job for the 2017 season, was hired as the coach of the New York Giants, and he wanted to hire Vikings quarterbacks coach Kevin Stefanski to be his offensive coordinator.
Stefanski had a contract and the Vikings refused to let him leave. Zimmer offered this explanation:
"Loyalty to me is a big thing. So, I come in here four years ago and the offense is 29th, 27th, 26th. But I keep them. So, the first time our offense is pretty good, then I'm supposed to let all my coaches leave?
"If I'm going to be loyal to them … then I don't think they should not be loyal to me."
That comment is hilarious, and for a reason other than a horrendous double negative as the punchline.
Zimmer had no track record for loyalty to offensive assistants when he made that comment, and his hypocrisy on that topic reached a new level this week when he was allowed to fire DeFilippo — 11 months after the coach and Spielman made the quick trip to Philly filled with promises that would lure him to Minnesota.
What Zim imagines in moments of introspection is being a boss of great loyalty, not the head coach who ran off offensive line coach Jeff Davidson in January 2016 in flippant fashion, and then took away power from the much-respected veteran, Norv Turner, who left in the middle of the 2016 season.