Sam Bradford Nearly Blinds Coach Zimmer Celebrating After Big Play
Joe Johnson
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Earlier this week Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer “got on” his players about not showing more emotion on the field, specifically when they’ve made a big play. One player that could be accused of showing literally no emotion, ever, is current Vikings quarterback Sam Bradford, who has been described as “robotic”, so much so that he definitely could fit right in when artificial intelligence becomes self-aware and enslaves mankind in 2020. Ever a coaches player, apparently Bradford took that advice to the place where his heart would be if it wasn’t replaced with a carburetor at some point in his childhood.
During a two-minute drill in practice, Bradford connected with his number one receiver Stefon Diggs for a touchdown and began celebrating, or really attempting to imitate what his processors had determined was the best combination(s) of different celebrations he had both personally witnessed and also downloaded from the mainframe at an undisclosed location (sidenote: if anyone knows the location of that mainframe, please, for the sake of mankind’s future, let us know). Okay, enough robot jokes. Bradford was excited about the meaningless touchdown and decided to approach the closest person to him to what sounds like lift him off the ground. That closest person happened to be the 61 year old head coach of the Vikings and probably because Zimmer seems like the last person within a 50 mile radius of Mankato that would enjoy being lifted off the ground, he ended up on the ground, instead (probably after Bradford suddenly realized by the look in Zimmer’s one non-patched eye that he had made a terrible mistake, panicked and just let him go).
Keep in mind that Zimmer is still recovering from his umpteenth eye procedure/surgery and that his doctors have warned him against any physical eye contact, namely worried about inadvertent sideline contact that could be yet another setback and could require a ninth surgery on his eye. Luckily for his eye, and Bradford, Zimmer got up laughing, but Bradford did not escape unscathed as Zimmer had a few jokes for him after practice. According to Kevin Seifert at ESPN, Zimmer said:
“I didn’t see him, It was a blindside shot, but I told him a quarterback can never hurt me. They have to show some emotion out there,” Zimmer said. “I’m glad he did it. … I’ve been on [them] about not showing enough emotion when we make a big play.”
I’m sure that emotion didn’t entail him being lifted/dropped but this goes to show you what a good guy/coach Zimmer really is, despite the nonsense that he had to deal with earlier this off-season when the Lavar Ball of the NFL, Riki Ellison, decided to throw his son’s former team under the bus for not wanting to resign an aging TE/Fullback. Either way, we can all rest easy that Zimmer’s eye should be okay and that our robot overlord’s are still at least a few years away!