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On Tuesday at Winter Park, Minnesota Vikings’ head coach Mike Zimmer returned to the team following a two-week absence after his latest eye surgery. It’s good for the team to get their leader back, and from a couple of the questions that Zimmer was asked by the media following Tuesday’s practice session, it sounds like he’s going to be taking his rehabilitation much more seriously.
Here are a couple of the questions Zimmer was asked about the eye, courtesy of a transcript that was sent out by the Vikings’ PR staff.
Q: Mike, are you able to do everything? Do you have to be careful with anything when you are out there?
A: Moderation is the term to use. The pressure is good, the bubble is dissolving, the retina is in good shape, but really all he said was, “Just be smart.”
Q: How would you describe your vision?
A: You know, it is hard to see through the bubble, but above the bubble I can see and below the bubble I can see. I can see right and left. The vision is pretty good. It is hard to tell if it is 20/20 or 20/800 because you cannot really tell any of that, but I can see decent. It is just annoying sometimes when you seeing like a glass of water over here.
Q: You have had a lot of optimism of the course of this whole thing, even through some setbacks. How would you characterize where you’ve at now?
A: This is probably the most optimistic, I would guess. They put the bubble in there to keep the retina in place, and at this point, the bubble is only helping when I am sleeping right now. So when I am standing up, and doing it all, it has been a couple of weeks, so I am hopeful.
Q: What is your assessment of things while you were gone and how the team looked now that you are back?
A: I thought the players did a great job of understanding the situation and trying to stay with the things we are trying to progress to, and the coaches did a great job of working together. That is always hard when you got offense going against defense and things like that, but they worked together very well. They listened to all of the direction that I gave them each day. They did a really good job, so I am very lucky and very fortunate to have not only the coaches that I have, but the team that I have.
Q: Would you say the getaway was worth it?
A: I guess. I do not know. I guess I did not have much of a choice. If everything goes good, it is worth it, and if it does not, it is not.
Q: Do you anticipate that is the only time you will have to get away?
A: I hope so. Yeah, right now, like I said the retina looks great, so he is going to check it again in a couple of weeks. I still can’t fly or do any of that kind of stuff, but right now it is probably the best reports that I have had since all of this stuff started. I have probably done a little bit more research since the season has gotten over with, and I probably needed to take it a little more serious than what I did.
Well, I’m not sure if him apparently “not taking it seriously” is a good thing. I thought that him missing a regular season game for it was taking it seriously, but looking back on it he apparently doesn’t feel as though he was.
At 61 years of age, Zimmer isn’t exactly a spring chicken anymore, and sometimes these issues can really get out of control. It appears that Zimmer is determined not to let that happen, so hopefully it won’t be something that affects him too much anymore. But, obviously, it’s going to be something that’s in the back of everyone’s mind.