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Bashaud Breeland’s performance on the field for the Minnesota Vikings throughout the course of the 2021 season had him skating on pretty thin ice. . .or, at least, it should have. In the team’s final practice before their Monday Night Football matchup against the Chicago Bears, Breeland did enough to break through.
The Vikings waived Breeland on Saturday, following what numerous sources are reporting as a verbal altercation in practice that got severe enough that GM Rick Spielman had to step in and diffuse things.
Here’s the report from Ben Goessling of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:
Source said the altercation between Bashaud Breeland and teammates at practice today started with normal trash talk between players, but escalated to the point where GM Rick Spielman had to step in. That's obviously a pretty quick way to hit the point of no return.
— Ben Goessling (@BenGoessling) December 18, 2021
Sources said Breeland exchanged words with Dalvin Cook and Sheldon Richardson, among others, before Rick Spielman stepped in to break things up.
— Ben Goessling (@BenGoessling) December 18, 2021
Other reports say that Breeland got into it with players and coaches, and then went back to the locker room, including this from Courtney Cronin of ESPN:
According to a source, the situation with Bashaud Breeland started in a defensive meeting room and created tension between a coach and the cornerback. Things died down when the team left to go to practice but got tense again when Breeland went onto the field w/ the starters but
— Courtney Cronin (@CourtneyRCronin) December 18, 2021
was told to come out of the lineup. He apparently stood on the sideline for awhile and wasn't put back in and went to the locker room to take his cleats off. He came back to the practice field where a verbal altercation between Breeland, teammates and coaches took place.
— Courtney Cronin (@CourtneyRCronin) December 18, 2021
General manager Rick Spielman eventually got involved and brought Breeland up to his office for further discussion. He was then released.
— Courtney Cronin (@CourtneyRCronin) December 18, 2021
Breeland signed with the Vikings just before the start of Training Camp, and brought a Super Bowl pedigree as he had won a ring with the Kansas City Chiefs a couple of years ago. However, that didn’t translate onto the field, as Breeland got beat plenty by opposing receivers and was one of the lowest-graded cornerbacks this season by Pro Football Focus.
With Breeland’s release, the Vikings now have five cornerbacks on the active roster and could end up elevating someone from the practice squad before Monday’s contest at Soldier Field.
Once again, the Vikings have released cornerback Bashaud Breeland following an altercation with teammates and coaches at practice. I’m sure we’ll hear more coming out about this in the next few days.
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