Daily Norseman
I am not a fan of the bye week but I realize that the players need it. If the NFL is ever going to 18 games then I can imagine that there will be two bye weeks. They might even expand the game day rosters by another couple of players. But the bye week is here and there are probably not any games I want to watch in their entirety. Maybe Kansas City vs Detroit? I’d want to see how Baltimore does against the Rams but only if Lamar Jackson plays.
I’ll have to figure something out though because the “honey-do” list is omnipresent and indelible.
What games are you going to watch?
What can we glean from Vikings’ trip to Dublin, London?
Minnesota Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell recently found a way to succinctly describe his team’s 10-day international road trip.
“You’re almost to the end,” a journalist remarked during a news conference last Friday.
“Two sleeps,” O’Connell interjected, mimicking the phrasing parents sometimes use with restless children. “Two sleeps left. But who’s counting?”
Vikings players, coaches and staffers were more than ready to head home two sleeps later. A trip that began with confidence proved to be a challenge, one that would test any NFL team’s routine-oriented process.
The Vikings’ medical staff was taxed by a rash of injuries, and their personnel department had limited options to fortify the roster. Some players and coaches took advantage of the free time abroad to see the sights, first in Dublin and then in London. But many said they felt out of sorts while away from their families and admitted they were much more tired — because of the change in sleep patterns and limited recovery tools — than they feel during a normal NFL week.
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“It was tough,” tight end T.J. Hockenson said. “You’re not eating the way you normally eat. You’re not getting the recovery you normally get. You’re not seeing the people you normally see. You’re not getting the ‘juice’ you usually get. There’s so many things that go into it. But we talked about it all week. There’s so many excuses. You can point to one. You can point to two. You can point to 20. At the end of the day, it’s like, ‘Let’s grind. Let’s not seek comfort.'”
Hockenson precisely paraphrased the weeklong message delivered by O’Connell, who said he’s a “big believer that if you’re looking for obstacles and excuses, you’re going to find them.” It was O’Connell’s way of asking everyone in the organization to move past a suboptimal working environment.
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No one on the Vikings’ football staff is more no-nonsense than defensive coordinator Brian Flores, and even he found himself vacillating between the benefits and detriments of so much time away.
“I’m not a homebody, but I certainly miss my family,” Flores said. “They were here for Ireland. That was great. Once they go, it’s just, the boys had a game [that I missed]. We...
