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Not long after his son, Rhett, signed a new free agent contract with the New York Giants, former NFL player Riki Ellison made the comments that the Minnesota Vikings had “toxic leadership” and that was why so many of the team’s in-house free agents were leaving.
Apparently, the elder Ellison isn’t terribly interested in actually explaining what he’s talking about.
In an interview today with Paul Allen on KFAN-FM in Minneapolis, Vikings’ head coach Mike Zimmer said that he tried to get in contact with Ellison to find out exactly what he was talking about. . .with predictable results.
"I tried to call him, unfortunately he didn't return my call," Zimmer said. "I'm trying to get to where his comments were made but he didn't seem fit to call me back."
Vikings’ beat writer Chris Tomasson also attempted to get in contact with Ellison for clarification his comments. You’ll never guess what sort of response he got.
(Okay, you’ll probably be able to guess.)
I reached out to Rhett Ellison dad few hours ago on not returning call from #Vikings coach Mike Zimmer You guessed it, he hasn't called back
— Chris Tomasson (@christomasson) March 21, 2017
As one of the Twitter replies suggests, maybe Riki did, in fact. . .
(•_•) ( •_•)>⌐■-■ (⌐■_■)
. . .lose that number.
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
But seriously, at this point I think it’s become pretty clear that Riki Ellison has absolutely no damn idea what he’s talking about. The only toxic thing here is his attitude towards the team that kept his son gainfully employed for five NFL seasons.
One of the Vikings’ free agent additions this offseason, defensive lineman Datone Jones, specifically cited the Vikings’ organization and culture as reasons he chose to sign with the Vikings a week or so ago, thanks to his college teammates, linebackers Anthony Barr and Eric Kendricks.
“I was getting excited, but I wanted to see for myself,” Jones said.
“They’ve spoken so well about the organization and culture, the environment, the city, the type of people in the city, the players, our teammates,” Jones said. “I’ve heard the stories, and now I get to put all of these faces with stories I’ve heard over the years.”
Doesn’t sound terribly toxic to me.
Maybe, at some point, Riki Ellison will clarify his comments about the Minnesota Vikings. At this point, however, I don’t think I’d hold my breath waiting for it to happen.