Anthony Barr Says Goodbye
The Minnesota Vikings are just one week away from their season opener in Chicago. In the 2025 season, they finally want to get over the wild-card playoff hump and start a playoff run. The previous generation of Vikings didn’t reach the ultimate goal, but at least participated in the NFC Championship game.
Anthony Barr Says Goodbye
Part of Mike Zimmer’s crew was Anthony Barr, Minnesota’s long-time linebacker.
He returned to the Twin Cities on Monday to officially announce his retirement from the NFL. In his retirement presser, he stated, “It’s really good to be back here. It’s important to me to retire as a Viking because the community means so much, the franchise means so much. It’s a franchise that changed my life, coming here in May 2014 as, really, a young boy trying to find his way playing a game he’s loved his whole life and got a chance to showcase his talents here.”
Barr was part of the 2014 draft class, the first under Zimmer’s watch. Only fitting that the new defensive sheriff had access to whichever defender he liked. He handpicked Barr, a 6’5″ linebacker out of UCLA, to anchor his defensive unit for the next decade. A few hours later, Teddy Bridgewater joined him in Minnesota.
He remained with the Vikings until the 2022 offseason, when he left with his coach Zimmer, but returned for a brief backup stint in 2023.
The start didn’t go according to plan, Barr revealed, “I was coming from California, I was in my T-shirt and my shorts, and I got off the plane and it’s snowing. I’m like, ‘Oh, damn. This place is different. Hopefully we don’t come here, because I’m not trying to deal with the snow in April.’ Six weeks later, they called. and I was like, ‘Damn!'”
Well, that can happen in Minnesota. Born in Indiana, Barr grew up in Los Angeles, all the way to becoming a star defender at UCLA despite enrolling there as a running back, a position he would grow out of.
Ultimately, however, Barr fell in love with the cold: “But it ended up working out. Now I actually love the snow more than I do the heat, so that’s kind of changed, being a Cali boy. Now I’m, like, full Minnesota.”
Barr was used differently in the NFL than in college, where he was a pass-rusher. Under Zimmer, he was an off-ball linebacker, and he was a pretty good one, playing in the Pro Bowl four straight times from 2015 to 2018. In 102 games with the purple team, Barr recorded 496 tackles, 39 tackles for loss, and 17.5 sacks.
Once he left, he signed with the Dallas Cowboys, but didn’t get a new deal for the 2023 campaign. The Vikings hired him for a few weeks when starter Jordan Hicks suffered an injury, and Barr played in a backup role.
It turns out that run with the Vikings in 2023 was his final NFL action, and fittingly, it was with the Vikings and in an homage to his buddy Eric Kendricks, he wore number 54 this time. Kendricks was just one of his teammates who was present on Barr’s big day.
Barr added, “This is the team that gave me an opportunity. They let me come in and be my authentic self, while also expecting and demanding a lot from me. It was a two-way street, and I think, for the most part, I held up my end of the bargain — and they did as a franchise, as well.”
It was a fun ride to watch the man captain Minnesota’s defense for most of his career.
Editor’s Note: Information from PFF, Over The Cap, and Pro Football Reference helped with this article.