Scoggins: No apologies necessary, except from Vikings players

Mike Zimmer did his best to put the toothpaste back into the tube Monday.

He described his blistering criticism of his team following a 17-3 loss to Detroit as "Zimmer being Zimmer." He backtracked on accusing his team of being undisciplined and clarified his comments about fining players for tardiness.

Zimmer admitted he "flew off the handle" in the heat of the moment.

"I kind of was not in the best frame of mind at that time," he said Monday.

Zimmer shouldn't apologize. His team has played embarrassingly bad the past two weeks. His players need some tough love and accountability after producing another stinker that caused Zimmer's blood pressure to soar.

At least one veteran player admitted he was nervous when he walked into a team meeting Monday morning — presumably on time.

"One thing about Coach Zimmer," fullback Jerome Felton said, "he always keeps it 100 percent real with you. You know where you stand."

"I'm the boss," he fumed. "Their job is to please me, not the other way around."

Asked if he thinks he got his players' attention with his outburst, Zimmer paused and exhaled.

"I want them to understand that it's not OK to lose," he said. "We have to change the mentality and the mind-set of this. It's not business as usual. I'm not very accepting of these kinds of things."

Zimmer's raw, unfiltered honesty is a breath of fresh air in a league that prides itself on secrecy and company lines. But his candor also reflects a tacit admission that changing a culture doesn't happen overnight.

Leslie Frazier's approach was pilloried as being too nice, too lenient. Problems didn't just magically disappear with the arrival of a saltier coach.

Zimmer brought up his tardiness remarks unprompted Monday by noting they were directed at two practice squad players who missed a weightlifting session on Saturday.

On the field, the Vikings commit too many penalties. They rank second in the NFL in dropped passes, according to ESPN.com. They're one of the worst teams in turnover margin.

So, yeah, they are undisciplined.

"I don't think that we're undisciplined," Zimmer said. "I think we can be more disciplined than we are."

Players-only meetings often become one of the most clichéd, overbaked tactics in sports, but the Vikings need their veterans to conduct some self-policing inside the locker room as reinforcement to Zimmer's message.

In times like this, organizations must be able to lean on veteran leaders to stress accountability to younger players and guys on the fringe. That's part of changing a negative culture.

But who makes up that leadership core now? It doesn't seem as obvious as it once did when Kevin Williams, Antoine Winfield, Steve Hutchinson, Matt Birk, E.J. Henderson, Pat Williams and Ben Leber roamed the locker room.

"It's a challenge because you're dealing with grown men," receiver Greg Jennings said. "You have to have self and inner accountability. If you don't have that, you don't really care."

Showing up on time to meetings or treatment should be a minimum expectation. That has nothing to do with talent or executing a game plan.

"Trust me, this is not just a Minnesota Vikings issue," Jennings said. "Guys are late across the board in a lot of other places. But when you're losing, everyone is scrutinized, everyone is under the microscope. You just try and weed out everything that is not right and correct it."

"I am learning, trying to be a good head coach," he said. "I'm not perfect, just like the players aren't. I'll just keep trying to do better and trying to get my team to be better."

Sometimes that requires a figurative kick in the pants. Zimmer shouldn't feel obliged to apologize for that.

Chip Scoggins • chip.scoggins@startribune.com