Maybe Mike Zimmer didn’t like that moment that Kirk Cousins got in his face after Greg Joseph’s 54-yard field goal beat the Detroit Lions at U.S. Bank Stadium last season.
It was Oct. 10, 2021 and the Vikings had let another late-game lead slip away only have have Cousins lead a quick drive that led to the game-winning field goal, which led to the candid scene of Cousins and Zimmer shoving each other on live TV.
OH? #skol pic.twitter.com/N8f7KOPsrp
— Syd Casper (@CasperSyd) October 10, 2021
Fast forward 287 days to Monday when Paul Allen, the radio voice of the Minnesota Vikings who co-owned a racing horse with Zimmer, suggested Zimmer really was ticked off in the moment.
“Back to like the middle of the season. Home game and it’s a victory. Yeah, Zim snapped when Cousins pushed him,” Allen said Monday on KFAN. “And looking back at it, the former head coach got that side-eye and rage steaming from his nostrils. And he wanted to go. But then he didn’t want to go. Kirk sensed a free shot during the working relationship and he got one in.”
It’s long been rumored that Cousins and Zimmer didn’t see eye-to-see. Regardless, the intense on-field moment has always been downplayed by the coach and QB.
“Honestly he’s doing exactly what I want him to do. He’s being a leader, he’s being vocal, he’s showing emotion. I’ve been talking to him about it all year,” said Zimmer on Oct. 11, “He came over and said, ‘You like that?’ He kind of gave me a shove and I shoved him back. It’s all good.”
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“I was just celebrating with it,” Cousins said after the game. “I was fired up.”
Allen’s words during his radio show can’t be taken as gospel, but considering his long working relationship with Zimmer, his words also can’t be tossed in the garbage.
Maybe the talker will come up with Cousins when training camp opens Wednesday. If not, we’ll live to speculate another day and wait for Mike Zimmer to write a book with a chapter or two dedicated to his relationship with Cousins.
