Much has been made of Mike Zimmer’s recent confession about contacting his mentor, Bill Parcells, to discuss the Vikings “getting over the hump” as a football team. Parcells, as he’s always done, no doubt told him again that football success is about the work.

After Minnesota’s sorry loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Divisional Playoff Game, Mike Zimmer was disappointed in his team and in himself.

It had been a long year, one with a big playoff upset win to celebrate near its end, but also one with a haunted house’s full of unpleasant turns and surprises. Ultimately, the 49ers made the Vikings’ last game one Zimmer wanted–and needed–to forget.

So Coach Zimmer called Coach Parcells, the guy who was his boss for four seasons in Dallas and the one fellow he might call his mentor.

‘The Problem Rests In The Omnipotence Of Thought’

Stop thinking about it and do it.

The head-coaching Zen of Bill Parcells, and that of Mike Zimmer subsequently, has always proven itself in industry and effort. But being a Super Bowl-winning head coach takes more than that.

From ‘Bill Parcell’s Coaching Philosophy’:

On building a championship team: “I’m not interested in being a competitive team. I want a champion team. That’s the only goal a guy like me can have. I’m not interested in making a team competitive week to week. I’m interested in champions.”

Mike Zimmer has surely read this passage, but how does he face his 2020 Minnesota Vikings with that kind of impervious spirit in mind? Well, chances are that he may very well be in the process of evaluating players like safety Jayron Kearse, cornerback Xavier Rhodes, and even wide receiver Stefon Diggs in regard to that kind of rarified resolve.

“Anybody that has their own agenda that’s separate from the team’s won’t be around long.” -Bill Parcells

Accountability

What Parcells looked for in a coach: “I want someone who’s consistent, who’s not afraid to confront the players and who makes the players accountable for their performance.”

After watching the Vikings’ offense fail in numerous crucial games in 2019, one wonders if Zimmer’s players–or even coaches–were being held to task.

Swept by both NFC North rivals Chicago and Green Bay this year, only to end the season with a pancake performance against San Francisco, both Parcells and Zimmer had to clearly see that this unit was not improving by season’s end despite one impressive overtime drive in the Superdome.

“In a competitive atmosphere, to stay the same is to regress.” -Bill Parcells

In hiring Gary Kubiak to take over for Kevin Stefanski as the Vikings’ new offensive coordinator, Zimmer no doubt put a smile on an old coach’s face. Parcells is by no means against hiring young coaches, but he’s surely not keen on “developing” them at the expense of a football team’s season.

Has Parcells examined the contributions that both Kubiak and Stefanki made to the Minnesota offense in 2019? You can bet on it.

You can also bet that he told Zimmer that Kubiak was the right man for the job last year.

“It doesn’t take athletic ability to hustle.” -Bill Parcells

Just A Simple–But Very Serious–Reminder

The Vikings and their coaching staff have a ledger of football chores and decisions before them in 2020. Roster changes, free agency, the draft, etc. They’ll look to their head coach to follow in these assignments.

When Mike Zimmer hung up the phone after talking to Parcells, he didn’t learn anything he didn’t already know about the routine of professional football ahead of him.

But being reminded that there will never be a substitute for winning disposition and program as a champion head coach, nor hard work in any championship season, he got himself re-set for the task before him.

That’s what mentors are for, being there to teach their students the things they know but sometimes forget.