Mike Zimmer doesn't want to answer questions. P.J. Fleck all but interviews himself.
Zimmer usually wears sweats, except that on Vikings gamedays he wears his gameday sweats. Fleck showed up for his weekly Gophers news conference on Tuesday wearing bright-blue pants, matching tie, side-buckled brown shoes that looked Italian-ish and a snazzy checked sports coat that would have gotten most of us beaten up if we wore it in high school.
Zimmer is fluent in grumbling, and in his second language, eye-rolling. Fleck speaks in aphorisms and slogans and could sell you undercoating on a glass-bottomed boat.
There have been coaches, managers and front-office personnel in Twin Cities sports history who handled their public duties with grace, sometimes even eloquence. Paul Molitor does it. Leslie Frazier, Flip Saunders, Terry Ryan and Dwane Casey represented themselves and their organizations with class and good humor.
On the local football scene, there currently is no middle ground. Zimmer has become a grump, and Fleck is exactly the salesman we expected him to be.
Which do you prefer in a football coach?
For all of their differences, Zimmer and Fleck are mired in similarities. Both have enjoyed recent seasons that raised expectations — Fleck winning big last year, Zimmer going to the playoffs in 2015 and failing to beat the Seahawks only because of … well, you know.
Both are 3-2 heading into a weekend home game against a superior team from the East that wears green.