Vikings assistant coach on former HC Mike Zimmer: 'It became toxic'

The Minnesota Vikings parted ways with head coach Mike Zimmer at the end of the 2021 season, which seems to have come as a relief to the bulk of the organization. In fact, things were so bad that even one of Zimmer’s assistant coaches was comfortable throwing the former coach under the bus.

Longtime NFL cornerback Terence Newman played under Zimmer and went on to coach under him, serving as the Vikings’ defensive backs coach since 2018. Newman admitted that players “dreaded going to work” in Zimmer’s final years as coach, as the organizational culture became so bad.

“It became toxic,” Newman told Tyler Dunne of Go Long. “It was a trickle effect. If players are dreading getting cussed out and s— like that, then it’s going to make it a long day for everybody.”

When this is the line coming directly from one of Zimmer’s staff members, you know things were bad. Some of the stories that have come out about the final days of Zimmer’s tenure certainly back that up.

Zimmer has already taken on a new role since the Vikings fired him. That team might want to keep a close eye on things to ensure that these problems do not arise there as well.