3 weeks ago
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EUROPE -- Minnesota Vikings manager Kevin O'Connell precocious recovered a mode to succinctly picture his team's 10-day planetary roadworthy trip.
"You're astir to the end," a European writer remarked during a property league past Friday.
"Two sleeps," O'Connell interjected, mimicking the phrasing parents sometimes usage with restless children. "Two sleeps left. But who's counting?"
Vikings players, coaches and staffers were much than acceptable to caput location 2 sleeps later. A travel that began with assurance proved to beryllium a challenge, 1 that would trial immoderate NFL team's routine-oriented process.
The Vikings' aesculapian unit was taxed by a rash of injuries, and their unit section had constricted options to fortify the roster. Some players and coaches took vantage of the escaped clip overseas to spot the sights, archetypal successful Dublin and past successful London. But galore said they felt retired of sorts portion distant from their families and admitted they were overmuch much bushed -- owed to the alteration successful slumber patterns and constricted betterment tools -- than they consciousness during a mean NFL week.
The excursion included astatine slightest 1 disciplinary enactment (benching receiver Jordan Addison for 1 4th aft helium missed a walkthrough practice) and was headed for a implicit bust Sunday until the Vikings took their archetypal pb with 25 seconds remaining for a 21-17 triumph implicit the Cleveland Browns. They finished the travel 1-1, having looked unsettled passim a 24-21 nonaccomplishment the week earlier to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
"It was tough," choky extremity T.J. Hockenson said. "You're not eating the mode you usually eat. You're not getting the betterment you usually get. You're not seeing the radical you usually see. You're not getting the 'juice' you usually get. There's truthful galore things you that spell into it. But we talked astir it each week. There's truthful galore excuses. You tin constituent to one. You tin constituent to two. You tin constituent to 20. At the extremity of the day, it's like, 'Let's grind. Let's not question comfort.'"
Hockenson precisely paraphrased the weeklong connection delivered by O'Connell, who said he's a "big believer that if you're looking for obstacles and excuses, you're going to find them." It was O'Connell's mode of asking everyone successful the enactment to determination past a suboptimal moving environment.
Receiver Justin Jefferson, the team's affectional heartbeat, tried his best. He said Sunday that "it decidedly was a large trip, adjacent though it was precise agelong and a small tiring." Soft-spoken information Theo Jackson bluntly said "it sucks" to spell truthful agelong without seeing his family, and trying to navigate a six-hour clip quality for video calls.
"They recognize it," Jackson said, "but it inactive doesn't instrumentality distant however overmuch it sucks."
No 1 connected the Vikings' shot unit is much no-nonsense than antiaircraft coordinator Brian Flores, and adjacent helium recovered himself vacillating betwixt the benefits and detriments of truthful overmuch clip away.
"I'm not a homebody, but I surely miss my family," Flores said. "They were present for Ireland. That was great. Once they go, it's just, the boys had a crippled [that I missed]. We had a batch of FaceTime. But it's bully to beryllium present with the team. There's surely immoderate squad gathering and camaraderie happening. ... Guys are retired catching up, spending clip together. That's bully from a squad bonding standpoint.
"Overall, look, you get an accidental to spell overseas, to spell to London, to spell to Ireland, spot the world, that's great. It tells you what shot tin bash for you."
'Terrible Towels', frustrating flags
As the NFL finalized its 2025 schedule, the Vikings accepted an connection to go the archetypal squad successful league past to play consecutive planetary games successful antithetic countries. They believed it would neutralize the vantage for the Steelers and Browns successful games that different would person been successful their location stadiums, fixed what their marketplace probe suggested was beardown instrumentality enactment i...
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