Mike Zimmer Even More Unhappy Than We Are

So, let's continue with "Everybody get ticked off at the Minnesota Vikings" week with this little beauty from yesterday.

Mike Zimmer had his post-game press conference, and as you can imagine, he was pretty unhappy with the way his team performed. He wasn't terribly happy with the way they performed in the week leading up to the game, either.

He kept using undisciplined to describe his team, and it was beyond the nine penalties for 60 yards. Zimmer said he had to fine more players than usual this week for being late to meetings and treatment.

"Some of the things we're doing are leads to undisciplined play," Zimmer said. "We've got to change a lot of these things. I had to fine a lot more guys this week, for whatever reason, for being late to meetings. I'm not going to let them slide. I'm going to keep fighting. I'm going to keep pounding my head. Like I told them, the fines are going to start going to the max now. I'm tired of it."

What in the hell?

Seriously, this is your freaking job. How hard is it to show up for a meeting on time? If there's a meeting scheduled for 8:00, it shouldn't be that damn hard to get to the meeting place by 8:00. Hell, if you've got an 8:00 meeting, you should probably be there by 7:45. And showing up late for treatment? How ridiculously stupid is that? If you're hurt, shouldn't you be doing everything you can to get yourself well and get back out on the field? For crying out loud, if you're hurt, your job is to rehab yourself and get back on the field. Honestly, if you're not dead or dying, your excuse for missing meetings or being late is probably not sufficient.

Now, Zimmer didn't name any names. . .and that's an absolute shame, if you ask me. . .but really, it doesn't matter. I'm not sure if it's veteran guys that are still flashing back to the Frazier regime (which would be bad) or younger guys that already have a bad taste in their mouths (which is significantly worse). Whoever it is, it's not a good sign that Mike Zimmer. . .a guy that has worked his ass off for a long time to be in the position that he's in. . .has to deal with this garbage six games into his head coaching career.

If guys are acting this way, then really, somebody with some tenure on this team needs to step in and tell whoever it is to knock it the hell off. I understand that there's a precedent in recent Minnesota history of players being disrespectful to coaches, like Percy Harvin screaming at Leslie Frazier in Seattle before his injury (which was justified by some around these parts, albeit as part of the larger "issue" that is Christian Ponder's existence), but honestly, it's wrong. As Zimmer said in his presser, he's the boss. . .it's the job of the players to impress him, not the other way around.

This is a 2-4 football team. In the four games they've lost, they've scored 7, 9, 10, and 3 points. . .a robust 7.25 points/game. They really can't afford to have guys showing up late to meetings or treatment or missing them all together. There isn't a guy on this roster that's good enough or important enough to try to put themselves above the head coach. This is also a very young football team, and it isn't a time for a lot of the younger players to be learning bad habits.

The Brian Robisons and Greg Jennings and John Sullivans and Chad Greenways of this team need to step up and do something about this. Mike Zimmer sure as hell isn't going to change his ways, and he shouldn't have to.