The Belichick + Vikings Chatter Started Sooner than Expected
Dustin Baker
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Most didn’t believe it would occur until the Minnesota Vikings lost their first game of the 2024 regular season. Some don’t want to hear it at all.
The Belichick + Vikings Chatter Started Sooner than Expected
But the moment the Atlanta Falcons hired Raheem Morris as head coach and not Bill Belichick, a silent timer began, ticking down the days until Vikings fans — or in this case, media personalities — linked the future Hall of Fame coach to Minnesota.
Without ceremony, that happened on ProFootballTalk.com last weekend.
The Vikings employ Kevin O’Connell, a man who has guided Minnesota to the NFL’s ninth-best record in his first two seasons as head coach. Yet, GOAT coaches don’t become available often — basically ever — so there would always be a faction of Vikings fans craving Belichick no matter what.
PFT’s Mike Florio started the drum-banging on Sunday. “Bill Belichick apparently will go 0-for-7 when it comes to finding a head-coaching job in 2024. If, as it appears, nothing materializes in Seattle or Washington or elsewhere, what will happen in 2025?”
That was the lead-in. Here’s Florio’s Vikings connection: “Teams to watch include (in my own assessment) the Bills, Browns, Jaguars, Giants, Eagles, Vikings, and Buccaneers.”
Belichick is 71 and will turn 72 in April, so any team that explores his services for 2025 will presumably embark on win-now mode. Florio believes that franchise could be Minnesota.
“And the Vikings are there for a very simple reason. Owner Zygi Wilf was a huge Giants fan before buying the Vikings. It’s not crazy to envision Zygi and Mark Wilf becoming smitten with the idea of giving Belichick a chance to take the just-good-enough Vikings to the top of the mountain the franchise has been trying to climb for more than 50 years,” Florio added.
The legendary shimmer of Belichick will resurface — most have decided to credit Tom Brady, not Belichick, for New England’s dynasty throughout the last few years — and every team with a coach on the hot seat will send its fans to the what-if Belichick rumor mill. It’s the nature of the beast. The same mentality will beset the Dallas Cowboys in 2024: Every loss will be accompanied by fire-Mike-McCarthy chatter.
Of course, O’Connell isn’t on the hot seat or anything like it. Minnesota is 20-14 (.588) on his watch, a fabulous first two years for any head coach. However, if the Vikings decide to “run it back” with Kirk Cousins and finish with a losing record, you better believe several Vikings fans in your orbit will spitball about Belichick as the solution.
Mark January 28th down as the first day the world started connecting Belichick with the Vikings. We’re already there.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sal Spice. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band).
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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