Vikings staff’s preparation gives players peace of mind for a first-of-its-kind road trip

There’s no procrastinating when packing to take an NFL organization overseas on an 10-day trip to two countries for two games.

For members of the Vikings staff, the first phases of planning started before the international trip was even finalized internally and then announced in mid-May.

Director of Team Operations Paul Martin started collecting players’ and staff members’ passports for safekeeping in late April. Director of Equipment Services Mike Parson had to have two semi-trucks of supplies sent to New York by June 30 to be cargo-shipped overseas for the trip.

The Vikings are aiming to make this first-of-its kind trip — which starts with an arrival in Dublin on Friday morning and ends when they return stateside after their game in London Oct. 5 — as normal of a road trip as possible, while still finding ways for players and coaches to enjoy the special experience.

“If this was [me] booking travel and bringing the orange slices after the game, if it was all those things, I would not be this confident in our ability to go handle these trips,” Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell said. “The best thing that we have here is a bunch of folks that regardless of what the plans might have been, we’re going to figure it out.”

The organization has done smaller-scale trips to London in 2013, ’17, ’22 and ’24, when they beat the Jets there last October.

Chad Lundeen, the Vikings vice president of operations and facilities, said during an August news conference with other key members of staff doing international planning that trips to London have gotten easier over the past 12 years thanks to investment from the NFL in full-time, London-based staff members and practice facilities at team hotels.

“This is a big challenge for an organization,” said Tyler Williams, Vikings vice president of player health and performance. “I wouldn’t want any other organization to take that on, other than us.”

Back in early June, a Vikings staff contingent with representatives from various departments including operations, security, medical, turf and more went on a scouting trip to Ireland.

They met with staff at the Dublin airport to go over the team’s arrival checklist and did a walkthrough at IRFU High Performance Center, where the team will practice.

The group also visited the team hotel in downtown Dublin and toured Croke Park. Williams visited local medical facilities to make sure they were ready to go in case of any level of injury or need.

Ben Hawkins, who is the team’s head performance dietitian, went to Dublin and London with the Vikings’ head chef to plan out the meals with a focus on balancing familiar American favorites with local cuisine to keep players satiated. Hawkins estimated they will serve 7,000 meals on the entire trip.

Items like ranch, Gatorade and anything else that could be sent ahead of the team was included in those two semis Parson packed and sent from Minnesota back in June.

Supplies went to Dublin and London to minimize, to a degree, the number of items the team needs to transport between the two cities. The Dublin supplies were set to arrive Sept. 18, a little over a week before the team.

“There’s plenty of mornings or nights where I wake up in the middle of the night, and I think of Dublin,” Parson said. “It’s just what it is because we want the trip to go so perfect that you’re trying to think of everything that could potentially come about and try to have an answer or solution to that.”

That includes everything from having the capability to build uniforms for any mid-trip roster additions to finding solutions if a player’s family member gets sick.

The sleepless nights of Parson and these other staffers have made it so that just days out from such a big trip, Vikings players and coaches were talking nonchalantly and confidently about the ordeal.

Quarterback Carson Wentz said when he first signed, he thought, “That’s gonna be a weird two weeks.“ Now, he’s approaching the trip like training camp, embracing some extra free time as his wife and kids aren’t traveling.

Safety Josh Metellus acknowledged how much of a blessing it is to not have to worry about the logistics on a trip like this.

“That’s the life,” he said. “It’s nice when the organization handles things for us and that allows us to just play football and focus on gameday.”

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