Vikings defenders say they were prepared for this, even if they were surprised.
Less than 24 hours after his third eye surgery to fix a detached retina, Mike Zimmer stood in front of his players at the team hotel — 1 mile west of U.S. Bank Stadium in downtown Minneapolis. Players had just heard Wednesday night, after the week's final practice, that Zimmer might not be able to coach. A follow-up visit with doctors Thursday morning confirmed he wouldn't.
Before interim head coach Mike Priefer was fitted for a headset, Zimmer followed through with one last "go out and bust your" tails pregame message, defensive tackle Tom Johnson said. Players could see Zimmer's obvious discomfort even though he delivered an otherwise typical speech.
"Same old, same old," Johnson insisted. "Do your job. No one has to make the great play. Go out there and make the solid play and everything will be OK.
"It's embedded in us, man."
Johnson references a way of thinking instilled by Zimmer, the 60-year-old hard-nosed coach who tried to maintain normalcy through a 1-4 stretch since injuring his eye.
Zimmer called four games, more practices and led even more meetings since first undergoing an operation to repair his right eye Nov. 1. From the players' perspective, there were no differences outside of the sunglasses he immediately required whether indoors or under a cloudy sky. Three days after his first operation, the glasses were gone.
Now a month and three surgeries into the issue, Zimmer is taking his recovery "day by day," General Manager Rick Spielman said. The head coach will be back with the team in at least some capacity next week, including handling the meetings with media.