Patrick Peterson might be a one-and-done player for the Minnesota Vikings, but that didn’t stop team owner/president Mark Wilf from inviting him to a player’s meeting before making a decision on the coaching hire.
It’s a moment Peterson took as a sign of respect, and it was an even bigger moment for anyone thinking ownership was shooting from the hip when passing on Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh before landing on Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell as the next head coach.
“Mark just wanted to get our thoughts on [the situation]. Put it all into the basket right now. Like, what are some of things [we thought] could make us a better football team,” said Peterson on All Things Covered. “Some of the guys got some of their messages out of what they thought was going to be good for the football team. What type of coaching style that they need to help us turn a corner. What type of coach that they feel we needed to help us turn a corner. It looks like they took all of those replies in and put it into their thought process when it came to hiring their new head coach.”
There was speculation last week that Harbaugh would land the head coaching job in Minnesota when he met with the team for a face-to-face interview, but a formal offer was never extended after that meeting.
Not long after Harbaugh was announced to be returning to Michigan, news began circulating that the Vikings are expected to hire O’Connell for the job after Super Bowl LVI.
“All of the fingers were pretty much pointing to Jim landing the job in Minnesota,” Peterson said. “The first thoughts that came to my mind was what happened with the interviewing process. What did they not like?”
That fateful meeting will be a topic of discussion in the future. The Vikings will either live to regret it or celebrate it for years to come.
