Kellen Mond doing good off the field as he looks for opportunity on it

You could have called Minnesota Vikings’ quarterback Kellen Mond an afterthought his rookie season, but such a label would imply that his head coach actually thought about him at all. After a rookie season where Mond threw just one pass, he’s getting a new opportunity from head coach Kevin O’Connell to, potentially, ascend to the role of Kirk Cousins’ backup. It’s very early on, but it appears that the coach is impressed with Mond’s ability thus far.

I know that, for the past couple of years, the team has liked having Sean Mannion around as the #2 quarterback because. . .I don’t know. . .“veteran presence” or something. But in last year’s penultimate game in Green Bay, we saw what would happen if Mannion were to be thrust into extended action. It would get ugly, and it would get ugly really quickly. It would be nice if Mond could take a hold of the backup quarterback job in his second season.

Whether he does or not, though, he has already made at least one positive impact off the field. While he was out grocery shopping in the Twin Cities area, Mond overheard a conversation. . .here’s the rest of the story from Lindsey Young of the Vikings’ official website.

Outside The Wedge Co-op in Minneapolis, a gentleman lamented another instance of having his bicycle stolen.

The conversation struck Mond, but the Vikings backup quarterback found himself in a hurry to make it to an appointment on time. Later that evening after his appointment, though, Mond returned to the same area and connected with the man.

“I ended up coming back to the store, and I asked him if I could buy him a bike,” Mond explained after Tuesday’s Organized Team Activity practice.

The 22-year-old followed through on his word, purchasing a brand-new Schwinn bicycle a couple of days later. He called his new friend, “Mr. Eazy,” and the two met up again so Mond could give him his new wheels.

It’s pretty cool that Mond took the time out of his day to do this for someone that was down on their luck. He could have blown the whole thing off, but he came back to the area after he was done meeting his other commitments and followed through with the new wheels.

I know I’ve said this before, but it’s awesome to see things like this from the members of our favorite team. I’m sure that there are lots of members of the Vikings that do things like this that fly under the radar, but whenever we find them we do our best to bring them to everyone’s attention.