What to know about the Vikings HC Search [Edit: Today's Harbaugh Thread]

Submitted by MightyMatt13 on January 30th, 2022 at 11:08 AM

Maybe this is overdoing it, but we've heard a ton about the Raiders the last couple weeks and not much about Minnesota until very recently. As a big Vikes fan who's worlds only collide with the occasional Ben Gedeon 4th round selection or Hutch Hall of Fame selection, I'm Big Emotion right now. Here are some tidbits to catch us all up:

  • Per Tom Pelissero today, Rams OC O'Connell, 9ers DC Ryans, and Harbaugh are the 3 finalists for the job
  • Before Kwesi was hired as GM, ownership set out what they wanted for the franchise and interviewed HC candidates of their own. They do not want a rebuild, see a window in the North to compete ASAP, and feel a communicator on both sides of the ball can get that done
  • O'Connell and Ryans both got the call from ownership pre-Kewsi, have worked with him in the past, and now are scheduled for 2nd round interviews after today's NFC Championship. We can safely say both have buy-in from ownership + new GM
  • Harbaugh is a pure Kwesi interview, no one from the org reached out to him before he was hired
  • Beat writers came out and said Ryans was the favorite to ownership after his dismantling of GB in the playoffs, which plays no small role here (sorry Bears and Lions fans, the only threat perceived to MIN is GB)

From a fan base perspective many are very excited about the possibility of JH on message boards, talk radio, etc. He also has a tree of coaches still in the NFL (hello Vic Fangio) that could fill a staff together pretty quickly and arguably better than either other option.

Reading the tea leaves, Ryans ticks every box and makes less waves than Harbaugh, which certainly the Wilfs will prefer and I imagine a very young inexperienced GM will too. What's worth paying attention to is if the 9ers beat the Rams - do the Vikings want to wait for Ryans while staffs settle in to place? Do they prefer Harbaugh to O'Connell - which I feel they might given their strong desire for a leader vs. offensive or defensive specialist? The math COULD become Harbaugh now with open season to hire a staff > Ryans in 3 weeks with a lot of position/OC/DC settled around the league. That has happened plenty of times before: See Bieniemy, Eric.

I'll hang up and listen.

DetroitBlue

January 30th, 2022 at 3:39 PM ^

How, exactly, do we ‘treat them differently’ than, say the Romans, Greeks, Mongolians or any other warlike or empire-building states, tribes, etc.? And, how can you condemn them as ‘bad guys’ when willingly being a part of a nation and supporting a government that committed wholesale genocide of Native Americans and enslaved millions? I’m also fuzzy on how what they did any worse than the colonization and abuse of native people committed by the spanish, english, french and many others over the years - to my mind, we don’t celebrate vikings and more/less than those other groups

Joined: 07/02/2008

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Yeoman

January 30th, 2022 at 6:42 PM ^

I guess you're too old to remember the San Diego Q's? ABA expansion team; had Wilt Chamberlain as player/head coach for a year. They might well have ended up in the NBA but Jack Kent Cooke vetoed the possibility. Which only bought him three years because the Clippers ended up there instead.

A couple of California high schools have made the news in the last couple of years for dropping the name; I assume there are still some around.

Joined: 06/08/2011

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zapata

January 30th, 2022 at 7:37 PM ^

Thanks, I wasn't aware of any! I guess it's not surprising.

And to be honest, I think it would be pretty appalling to have a team called the Conquistadors, even though I'm not super offended by the name Vikings. Maybe it's recency bias? Or my own cultural awareness: I am much more a student of Latin American and Spanish history than of medieval northern Europe. I might have to rethink the whole Vikings thing

Joined: 03/10/2010

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Number 7

January 30th, 2022 at 1:35 PM ^

Perhaps, but they weren't much worse than any other group of late Antiquity in Europe.  Hard to say, for example, that the Romans (of mid-Antiquity, I suppose), Goths, or Saxons went about their respective businesses any differently.  And the Normans, the immediate ancestors of the English, were essentially Vikings themselves.

Joined: 06/09/2009

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jmblue

January 30th, 2022 at 2:53 PM ^

And the Normans, the immediate ancestors of the English, were essentially Vikings themselves.

Not really.  After Rollo was made Duke of Normandy in 911, he and his men settled down and married into the local Gallo-Roman population.  They converted to Christianity and adopted Old French as their language within a couple of generations.  By 1066, when William embarked on his conquest, there was basically nothing left of the old Viking culture in Normandy.

William's army actually was drawn from across northern France, although the leadership was mostly from Normandy.  They aren't really the ancestors of most modern English people, just the aristocracy for the most part.

Joined: 11/07/2008

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Carpetbagger

January 30th, 2022 at 4:50 PM ^

That's true, but although the Normans may not have been Vikings directly, their culture was heavily influenced by their Viking forbreathern.

Once farming became a thing it seems most invaders just became another layer of culture blended with the existing farmers.

Joined: 12/31/2010

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MeanJoe07

January 30th, 2022 at 5:08 PM ^

Wait long enough and everyone's a bad guy. Especially if your view of history is as sophomoric as actually believing the good guy vs. bad guy dichotomy. History isn't a marvel movie or a game of cops and robbers. History happened. It's done. It can't be cancelled. You can't cancel a show that already happened. You can sensor it or pretend it didn't happen if that's what's required for you to signal and feel like a good guy yourself, but don't expect everyone else to play along.  Learn from history, be in awe of it's terror, be in awe of it's magnificent. Let it make it's impression on you so that you can carry on with its lessons and not. . . Well you know the old cliché.

 

Joined: 09/15/2013

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LSA Aught One

January 30th, 2022 at 11:15 AM ^

I'm moving to Minneapolis in 2031.  From the map, it looks like there is a strong gyro place within walking distance from my new place.  If Harbaugh is the coach, I may even go to a few games.

Joined: 08/24/2011

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