Will the Vikings kneel in September?
Yahoo Sports Charles Robinson and Terez Paylor discuss if the Vikings will kneel in September. Subscribe to the Yahoo Sports NFL Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Video Transcript
TEREZ PAYLOR: One of the topics that is a hot button thing we're still talking about is whether players are going to kneel. And listen, ever since players started kneeling in 2016 with Colin Kaepernick, there hasn't been a Viking who kneeled. There hasn't been one who's done that.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Right.
TEREZ PAYLOR: On their own. And just two years ago, Mike Zimmer who's been the coach there since 2014 said essentially that he believes players should stand for the national anthem. So obviously the players were asked do you plan on kneeling? And obviously they, just like the other players who-- many of the other players who've been asked this said, we haven't talked about it.
I think it's interesting that Mike Zimmer did have a Zoom meeting with his players. And he did say, listen, I'm a white guy. I don't understand everything here. I want to understand. And the message that Eric Kendricks and Ameer Abdullah took from it was that Zimmer was basically saying, listen, I love you guys like I love my own sons. I'm going to have your back. And I'm hearing those guys talk about how much Zimmer meant it. And obviously, Andre Patterson, Zimmer's friend who is also a his D line coach, said that Zimmer spoke from the heart. Those guys co-signed the speech which makes me think is going to be really interesting to see what happens in the fall with the Vikings.
But I also think it's very notable that Rick Spielman was asked about this, too. And he's their GM. And Rick said basically everything they've done in the past on this, they've chosen to do as a team. So my hunch is that whatever the Vikings do, whether kneel or whatever, they're going to do it as a team. So I just-- I just think there's so many interesting layers to this. Because these guys are like, they're obviously trying to support the cause. But I also think depending on the team, there would be limits on how far their goes.
CHARLES ROBINSON: I-- I-- I don't like-- listen. I'm hot pissed, right now. The "we're going to do it as a team" thing is bull [BLEEP], OK? Straight up. I'm going to tell you that right now. That is a tool, OK? That is a tool that gets used by coaches, and it gets used by front offices, and it gets used by owners to create pressure on-- these guys aren't stupid. They're like OK, we might have four or five guys who feel like, hey, I want to-- this is the way I want to express this. And they go, we're going to do it as a team. So now you've taken 53 guys plus a practice squad, and you've singled out four or five guys.
And said, oh [BLEEP], you're going to make us all do this because four or five guys-- I'm going to-- look, straight up, I'm going to say this right now. This pisses me off because you are automatically-- you are pretending like you're not dividing your team. But that's a lie.
You are dividing your team by saying, hey, we're going to single you out. And then we're going to decide, hey, if we can all do the same thing just because you want to do it-- don't give me that, man. That pisses me off. That bothers me. And I've heard-- I heard that in 2017. I heard teams say that we're going to do it as a team. The Cowboys said that bull [BLEEP]. I'm so tired of hearing that. Oh, listen, we're doing it as a team. Jerry expects this. We're a team. We're going to toe the line together. All that stuff. And that-- I don't like that.
That is-- that's bullying in its most subtle form by saying, oh, well we're going to stick together. And if hey, guess what, if the team isn't going to do this collectively, you shouldn't do it.
TEREZ PAYLOR: It depends.
CHARLES ROBINSON: To me, that's garbage.
TEREZ PAYLOR: Mike Zimmer has already said to his players, I love you like my sons. I'm going to have your back. I think we'll see in the fall what that means.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Yeah. We'll see.