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We talkin' 'bout practice facilities, man!


Klomp

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Not that it will be a huge thing for us every season, but this facility along with the new stadium, definitely will be selling points for us in the future. We are building a good culture with our coaching staff, our results from year to year, and now we are having top of the line facilities. This will all help when bringing in new players, and having guy scouts who want to stick around.

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Interesting perspective on what we are moving out of.....

Shortly after tight end Kyle Rudolph was drafted by the Vikings in 2011, he was given a tour of the team’s Winter Park facilities in Eden Prairie by then-wide receivers coach George Stewart.

Quickly, Stewart could tell that Rudolph wasn’t amazed by the space, a drastic drop off from what Rudolph was accustomed to at Notre Dame.

“We were walking around, and he was like, ‘In college, they put the money in the facility because they have to get you there,” Rudolph said, quoting Stewart. “ ‘In the NFL, we put the money in your pocket and you just deal with the facility.’ ”

https://theathletic.com/267885/2018/03/09/a-look-inside-the-new-277000-square-foot-vikings-practice-facility/

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Sheldon Richardson@SdotRich91

"This is the best building in the league... What makes me say that? Have you seen this building?" 

 

 

and there it is, confirmation of what we assumed would start happening. a state of the art facility, not a playground.

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2 minutes ago, BWG VIKE said:

I remember some used to say the stadium would help bring in free agents and some would argue facilities didn't mean anything to the players, well looks like its paying off already only weeks into the new place.

I once argued that it did help

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16 minutes ago, BWG VIKE said:

I remember some used to say the stadium would help bring in free agents and some would argue facilities didn't mean anything to the players, well looks like its paying off already only weeks into the new place.

Team facility is far more important than the stadium. The players go to the stadium about 10 times a season. They're in the team facility almost daily from August through January, plus periodically through the offseason.

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The Vikings believed that their massive new headquarters, the Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center in Eagan, would make an impression on free agents and it certainly did with Compton.

Compton: “Pretty blown away. I’ve never even seen anything like this before. Really unheard at the NFL level. It was just kind of amazing to walk through and kind of see all the state-of-the-art stuff. It’s going to be an awesome year.”

https://scout.com/nfl/vikings/Article/Newest-Minnesota-Vikings-lineman-Tom-Compton-says-Kirk-Cousins-a-natural-born-leader-116570623

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  • 2 weeks later...

Kendall Wright said a major reason he chose to sign with the Vikings was a close-knit vibe he got while visiting the Eagan headquarters.

Wright: “They have the best facilities that I’ve ever seen in all my seven years I’ve been around Just the culture around there, the family-oriented culture and things like that. We talked about the offense, but we didn’t go into it, it was much more like a recruiting thing. Everything that I’ve seen and did up there, I loved about it.”

http://www.vikings.com/news/article-1/Kendall-Wright-Excited-for-Vikings-Culture-Chance-to-Play-with-Cousins/3792deee-f2fd-418d-ace0-c227a69ea1dc?sf186040056=1

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The Vikings will begin offseason conditioning on April 16, have organized team activities from May 22-24, 29-31 and June 4-7, then conclude their spring workouts with a June 12-14 minicamp.

The offseason workouts are divided into three phases.

Phase One consists of the first two weeks of the program with activities limited to strength and conditioning and physical rehabilitation only. Only strength and conditioning coaches with no additional coaching responsibilities can be on the field working with players then.

Phase Two consists of the next three weeks of the program. On-field workouts may include individual player instruction and drills as well as team practice conducted on a “separates” basis. No live contact or team offense vs. team defense drills are permitted.

Phase Three – which for the Vikings is when organized team activities and minicamp take place – consists of the next four weeks of the program. Teams may conduct a total of 10 days of organized team practice activity. No live contact is permitted, but 7-on-7, 9-on-7, and 11-on-11 drills are permitted.

https://scout.com/nfl/vikings/Article/Minnesota-Vikings-offseason-conditioning-OTAs-and-minicamp-dates-announced-116943346

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  • 3 weeks later...

Is there a team in the NFL that has a better culture than the Vikings?

No players speaking out about changes in staff or contracts or teammates. No trouble or distractions on or off the field. No drama what-so-ever.

All we hear is how good of a leader/teammate so and so is or how the entire organization is like a family and how amazing our facilities are.

This is a FAR cry from the stuff we dealt with in the mid to late 2000's.

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10 hours ago, Vikes_Bolts1228 said:

Is there a team in the NFL that has a better culture than the Vikings?

No players speaking out about changes in staff or contracts or teammates. No trouble or distractions on or off the field. No drama what-so-ever.

All we hear is how good of a leader/teammate so and so is or how the entire organization is like a family and how amazing our facilities are.

This is a FAR cry from the stuff we dealt with in the mid to late 2000's.

Even under Frazier, didn't seem to have this same feel. It's not like the Vikes teams under Zimmer have really won anything more meaningful than the Frazier and Childress led teams, so one can't really say winning has created the environment. I think Spielman has done a great job finding players who fit the culture that Zimmer wants. Childress and Frazier led teams seemed to lack focus or any longterm vision.

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I think it’s a combination of the personality and attitude that Zimmer brings, and wants in his players. But I also think a lot of it has to do with the coaches being actual coaches and teachers. Players are coming to work and learning, and getting better at their craft. 

Neither Frazier or Childress were teachers. Frazier was supposedly a good motivator, and Childress good at Xs and Os, but both seemed to rely heavily on the natural talent of their players. 

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