Sunday will be a homecoming of sorts for Mike Zimmer, not that he cares about that sort of thing.

The 58-year-old head coach was born in Peoria, Illinois and grew up watching the Bears. He played high school football at Lockport Township High School and played his college ball at Illinois State.

But Zimmer doesn't anticipate feeling even a tinge of nostalgia when he walks onto the sideline with the Vikings on Sunday afternoon for his first game at Soldier Field as an NFL head coach.

"Well, I've been there a few times previously," Zimmer said today. "I don't think so. I don't have anybody coming to the game or anything like that. I was a Bears fan growing up. I spent a lot of time with Buddy Ryan and his defenses, growing up watching them. But the Vikings are my team now."

Early in his coaching career, the Bears were in the heyday of Mike Ditka and Ryan, his defensive coordinator. Zimmer looked up to Ryan from afar and eventually got to meet him through coaching.

"Anytime you're around great coaches and guys that in a lot of ways reinvented the game back then in 1985, I think you always try to take some of it, whether it's the mentality that he had," he said. "I was fortunate enough to sit in some of their defensive meetings. I had him come out when I was coaching at Weber State. I had him come out and do a clinic for us, sat down and had a couple of beers with him. But I think you always try to learn from the guys that are really, really good."

And while Zimmer probably won't be thinking about it Sunday, he does have a soft spot for Chicago.

"I used to love watching when Buddy Ryan was there as a defensive coordinator and Ditka, the '85 Bears and all those things. That's kind of when I was growing up," Zimmer told Chicago reporters on a Wednesday conference call. "You know, the Bears fans and the Chicago people in general are great, great people. They've always been very, very passionate about the Bears and the Cubs and the White Sox. But I don't put a lot of time and effort into worrying about them right now."