The Vikings head coach sits down with Purple Insider to break down the postgame speeches that the internet loves and that give us a window into his coaching style.
EAGAN — With players gathered around him in a circle, Kevin O’Connell bounced around like a boxer in the ring. The vein in his neck was popping out and his voice cracking as he shouted out the defense’s top performers.
“All Park did was go 4-of-4,” O’Connell hollered as outside linebacker Jonathan Greenard danced next to Romo and turned the kicker’s hat sideways. The victory speech is a window into who O’Connell is as a coach and his greater philosophy about leading a football team. He uses those energetic moments as another opportunity to reinforce his main message. And it’s a chance for the players, fans and his family to see his passion for leading the Vikings burning at its hottest point.The only thing in football that O’Connell does without preparing is his postgame speeches.
“My delivery could sometimes improve because my mind is racing 1,000 miles a minute,” O’Connell said. “It all circles back to the principals that I feel are most important are me being authentic, even in those moments. It can’t be predetermined. And having a little bit of humility. I have to be able to let these guys know that I’m not perfect.”
Jones can’t get enough of listening to O’Connell speak. If only we could see the pregame talks in the hotel the night before the game, he joked.What the veteran running back likes most about the post-win ceremony is when people outside of the star players get highlighted. Certainly players like Jones and All-Pro receiver Justin Jefferson has received their fair share of game balls but O’Connell going out of his way to include others resonates with Jones.
Pro Bowl right tackle Brian O’Neill said that fans are seeing a tiny snippet of O’Connell’s coaching style, the tip of the iceberg. “I’ve been in a locker room like that before early in my career with Pete Carroll, those speeches sound a lot the same,” Griffin said. “KO is a younger version of someone like Pete Carroll. I’ve also been around teams where they don’t do anything like this. The acknowledgement means more than KO can actually imagine.”
It could be that by the time everyone reaches that locker room after the game, they have used every ounce of energy that they have left. Between the concentration level, noise, physical exertion and tension of a close game, any wall that would be holding back the raw feeling of everyone involved has been torn down.
The emotion also comes from the extreme sense of relief that the head coach feels when his team has gotten the job done that week. “These guys are leading the organization and we’re going to go as far as they can take us,” Cousins said.No chance that was only a 3-out-of-10 happiness moment.
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