Vikings Players Seem to Love – and Miss – Chris Tomasson
For a long time, Chris Tomasson was a Vikings beat writer.
At times, he and Mike Zimmer didn’t see eye-to-eye. Kevin O’Connell, on the other hand, seemed to get along better with Mr. Tomasson. Tomasson even noted that his warm greeting from O’Connell at this year’s owners’ meeting contrasts with his experience with the defensive head coach:
Zimmer conflict aside, the broader point remains: Chris Tomasson seems well liked, both by his colleagues and current Vikings.
To begin his press conference yesterday, Kirk Cousins gave a shoutout to the beat writer:
The New Balances, the Nike monarchs, the sweaters. If any of you have Olympic sweatshirts from 1996, feel free to bring ’em out. But he’s Denver’s to worry about now, it sounds like. Dane, you’ve got big shoes to fill, huge shoes to fill, so good luck.
The Dane whom he’s referring to is Dane Mizutani, who recently announced he’ll be joining the Vikings beat. Tomasson even took notice, tweeting out that he’ll be cheering for the new Pioneer Press Vikings beat writer.
Earlier in the offseason, Harrison Smith addressed the now infamous tweet from Tomasson that sent along the photo of Prince. Apparently, Tomasson reached out to ask about where things stood with The Hitman and his negotiations. For a time, it looked like the future Hall of Famer may look to play elsewhere (a possibility Smith admitted to considering).
All Tomasson received in response was a photo of Prince:
As many people know, Prince was a huge Vikings fan. Tomasson, like many others, interpreted the somewhat enigmatic photo as evidence of Smith’s commitment to sticking around.
Harrison Smith was even asked about the exchange a couple weeks ago. The star safety said Tomasson’s response “didn’t disappoint:”
Vikings writers far and wide praised Tomasson’s tweet with the Prince photo. Phil Mackay of Skor North insisted that the “tweet belongs in Canton,” Alec Lewis from The Athletic notes that he’s “just very grateful for this in its entirety,” and SI’s Will Ragatz simply left a goat emoji in the comments.
Even some players took notice. Sophomore corner Akayleb Evans – who is active on Twitter – chimed in: “Hitman is hilarious.”
Not too long ago, Chris Tomasson took a new position with The Denver Gazette (as Cousins’ words suggest). When he left, writers like The Star Tribune‘s Ben Goessling, KSTP’s Darren Wolfson (calling Tomasson “a treasure” and a “bulldog”), and KFAN’s AJ Mansour sent along their well wishes (among many others).
In the end, the picture that emerges is of a beat reporter who garnered respect from an awful lot of players and colleagues.
Chris Tomasson is now covering Sean Payton’s Broncos with The Denver Gazette. Hopefully, he’ll be able to distinguish himself among Broncos beat writers and develop strong relationships with Denver’s players.
