Vikings Insider: Moving the operation a major undertaking

The commotion heard over the phone indicated that Dennis Ryan was a man on the move Friday evening. "That's OK, I've got time to talk," Ryan said. "We're just packing the truck."

Actually, Ryan probably didn't have time, but if he had waited for a free minute to present itself, the interview about to take place wouldn't have happened. Such is life for an equipment manager whose team had been displaced from its stadium, meaning that in less than a week, players accustomed to playing indoors had to get ready for Monday's night's outdoor game at the Gophers' TCF Bank Stadium.

"I don't know," Ryan said when asked if this was the biggest undertaking of his 35 years working as an equipment man for the Vikings. "It's kind of fun to have a little different challenge. We're out of the routine. The closer we're getting to it, the more it's coming together. It looks like this will be a pretty good experience. I don't know if it's the biggest thing, but I guess just roll with the punches and see what it's like."

So what's the big deal, you say? The Vikings have played cold-weather games in recent years. The key difference is that this one is at home. While Ryan and his assistants, Adam Groene and Aaron Neumann, are used to getting players prepared for the elements, they must now get an entire support staff ready to brave the temperatures.

Ryan estimates there will be nearly 60 people on the sidelines doing various jobs, including members of the chain gang, ball boys and four headset technicians. It's a world of difference from the Vikings' last outdoor home game on Dec. 20, 1981, at Metropolitan Stadium.

"I think back then we had two ball boys on the field and we would have had, I think, seven members of the chain gang and probably two guys answering phones," said Ryan, who has been the Vikings head equipment manager since 1981. "That's all I can think of. We didn't have people doing oxygen back then, injury cart drivers didn't exist and all sorts of different positions.

"Headset techs. We were the headset techs. It was a lot simpler. And now there are four of those guys, there's people answering phones, there's people running phones. There's all sorts of people that are involved in the gameday preparation and then the game itself. ... They've all got to be kept warm."

The only reason Ryan didn't have to make larger orders was because he already was prepared with some equipment for the Vikings' cold-weather game next Sunday at Philadelphia.

What makes Monday's game an even trickier assignment for Ryan is all of the items that had to be transported from either Winter Park or the Metrodome to TCF Bank Stadium, because the Vikings are the home club.

"I'd say this is like training camp without the heat," Ryan said. "There's going to be so much more moving."

Items range from the numerous exercise bikes that must go in both locker rooms as well as on the field, to chains for the chain gang, to goal-post pads, to field markings, to a rack of 5-gallon jugs of water, to towels that are stored at the Dome, to trunks of headsets, as well as the units for the coaches to communicate with the press box and players.

"Then there's still a long list beyond that that we need to pick up," Ryan said.

"You'll see heated benches, you'll see heat blowing from the blowers, you'll see players with hand warmers," Ryan said. "You'll see players actually wearing gloves. You'll even see coaches wearing gloves. Things that you didn't dream of. You think about all those items and in 1979 you wouldn't need to worry about having those things if you got stuck playing a cold game. Bud wouldn't allow them so you wouldn't have to worry about getting them ordered and getting them in and getting them distributed."

But 30-some odd years later, Ryan is in charge of making sure all of this is taken care of, meaning that he was a man working with few hours sleep last week.

"I've slept most of the hours I've been home," Ryan joked Friday night. "It just hasn't been a whole lot."