Slime Is Back for Vikings

  |  
Sep 26, 2024
Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell takes the slime, a tradition for a player winning Nickolodeon's NVP award for the week. Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold won the award in Week 3 and slimed his coaches accordingly on September 25th, 2024.

The Minnesota Vikings have a 3-0 record to start the 2024 season, and the team’s head coaches are getting slimed accordingly.

Slime Is Back for Vikings

It’s a tradition under head coach Kevin O’Connell: when a player wins Nickelodeon’s “NVP” Award, that man slimes his coaches, a trademark of the children’s television network.

Brad Rempel-Imagn Images.

Following Week 3, when Minnesota shellacked the Houston Texans 34-7 at U.S. Bank Stadium, quarterback Sam Darnold took home Nickelodeon’s NVP honor, thanks to 4 touchdown passes. The reward? Slime atop the skulls of O’Connell and his coaches.

Here’s the footage from the Vikings’ social media team:

O’Connell also received the infamous slime in 2022 after Minnesota chipped off the Green Bay Packers in Week 1, O’Connell’s first game and victory as a head coach.

So, the slime is back. Former Vikings quarterback Joshua Dobbs also won the NVP award last year during “DobbsMania,” 2-3 weeks that gripped the Twin Cities with Dobbs’ temporary interstellar performance.

Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports.

Darnold, who has taken the NFL by storm with his reclamation season, leads the NFL in touchdown passes and ranks seventh per quarterback EPA+CPOE. His team is undefeated atop the NFC North, and all facets of Vikings football are flourishing. Scaled to a full 17-game season, Darnold is on pace for this 2024 stat line:

  • 3,723 Passing Yards
  • 45 TD Passes
  • 11 INTs

After toppling the Texans last Sunday, Darnold credited the team’s fans in attendance at U.S. Bank Stadium. “The fans’ reaction meant everything. And not just the reaction, not only that, but my entire time here at Minnesota has been amazing with the fans. Just been great,” he told reporters.

slime
Brad Rempel-Imagn Images.

Justin Jefferson, the team’s best player, wasn’t shy on Sunday about hyping Darnold’s monstrous Week 3 showing. He opined, “Sam is the leader of the team, and he’s the captain, so it was a great job for him. His composure and his will to go out there, no matter who we’re going up against, no matter how many people are doubting us or doubting him, he’s going out there confident and just being himself.”

Darnold also owns the league’s seventh-best odds to win MVP — the real one, not the Nickelodeon version — entering Week 4.

NFL MVP Odds,
thru Week 3:

  • Josh Allen = +200
  • Patrick Mahomes = +325
  • C.J. Stroud = +1300
  • Aaron Rodgers = +1600
  • Jalen Hurts = +1600
  • Lamar Jackson = +2000
  • Sam Darnold = +2500
  • Joe Burrow = +2500
  • Brock Purdy = +2500
Do Vikings Start
Wm. Glasheen/Appleton Post-Crescent -USA TODAY NETWORK.

Darnold’s team next plays the Green Bay Packers on the road and is expected to lose by 2.5 points on Sunday.

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Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The show features guests, analysis, and opinion on all things related to the purple team, with 4-7 episodes per week. His MIN obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band). He follows the NBA as closely as the NFL. 

All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.