Mike Zimmer is going to keep coaching the Vikings even if he goes blind in his right eye.
“I’ll be back shortly with one eye or two. It doesn’t really matter, I’m gonna be back,” Zimmer said on a conference call Friday morning. “You can put the retiring thing or whatever to bed quickly.”
Even after eight surgeries on the eye in the last seven months, Zimmer’s doctors don’t think he’ll go blind. In fact, they think he’ll be good to go as soon as a gas bubble in the eye dissolves.
“Quite honestly, I don’t want to go blind in this eye. But if that’s what it is, that’s what it is,” Zimmer said. “This is not going to keep me from coaching one way or another.”
Still coaching from home
Zimmer, currently resting at his ranch in Kentucky where he’s on a break after surgery last week, will return to Minnesota June 4 and meet with his doctor June 5. If he’s cleared to resume working, he’ll be with the Vikings when they report for mandatory minicamp June 13-15.
Even though he’s recuperating at his home, Zimmer is still watching tape from organized team activities and texting players coaching advice.
“Players are probably getting tired of me texting them because I’m texting them things I see on tape,” Zimmer said. “I do miss being in the meetings with the players and I miss being out on the field where I can give immediate feedback, talking technique and things like that.”
