Getty Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins
The Minnesota Vikings were last reported as the least-vaccinated team in the NFL, with 30% of its players unvaccinated as of early August, per the Washington Post.
Several confirmed unvaccinated players happen to be in leadership positions, most notably quarterback Kirk Cousins, veteran wide receiver Adam Thielen, safety Harrison Smith and defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson.
Helping the Vikings reach three Super Bowls in the ’70s, legendary running back Chuck Foreman had several strong opinions about players who have refused the vaccine and how those players could compromise a successful season.
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‘I Wouldn’t Get in the Huddle With Kirk Cousins’
In an exclusive interview with the Pioneer Press, Foreman shared his thoughts on the team’s talent and how it could go to waste if players are unavailable due to COVID-19 protocols.
Despite the talent on the team, Foreman is wary about the possibility of major contributors missing games and/or having to forfeit. He predicted the Vikings to go 6-11 this season:
The Vikings certainly have the talent to have a winning season. However, I think with what’s going on with COVID and most of the guys in the leadership roles not taking the vaccine, I don’t know how you manage that. I think there will be some issues, especially if somebody gets infected and throws off the whole team. Then guys start missing paychecks. It’s going to create some problems in the locker room.
I really don’t know if a team can recover from a forfeit. If I’ve been vaccinated and we’ve got guys that haven’t been and then we’ve got to forfeit, I’m losing a big check — and they are big checks now. They aren’t like when I played; maybe a game check was 2,500 bucks.
Now I’m talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars that most guys are making per game. And so that’s going to have an effect on the team and the outcome of the season. I really believe that.
I’m sticking with my prediction of a 6-11 season for the Vikings.
He also called out quarterback Kirk Cousins and called unvaccinated players “unreasonable and selfish.”
In my opinion, unvaccinated players are being unreasonable and selfish.
I mean, I certainly have no problem with them in their own personal decisions. I understand that part of it, but this is a game that requires everybody to be on board. You can’t have three, four or five different people going in different directions. I just don’t see how it can work, especially when there are (unvaccinated) guys in the leadership roles. If you’re not on board, then the best thing for you to do is step away and let the team move forward without those types of problems … potential problems.
It’s my opinion, but I wouldn’t get in the huddle with (quarterback Kirk) Cousins. The guy’s not vaccinated. So, I think it would be a problem for me, personally.
I just want to reemphasize: Hey, whatever you do, I have no problem with that. But you can’t expect me to get in the huddle with you, especially if I’m vaccinated and I’m thinking a certain way.
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Foreman Reflects on Playing Days, Chemistry to Make it to the Super Bowl
A brief moment of comedic relief, Foreman recalled the weight of players’ breathes after a play and how the virus is almost unavoidable when playing a game like football:
I can remember getting tackled and guys are on top of me. And when they would breathe, I could tell who had what type of alcohol, like, “Man, what were you drinking last night?” I’m serious. You can smell it. This is how hard they’re breathing.
If you’re not vaccinated, then you’ve got a bigger chance of going (out of games sick). I’m just saying that now, besides worrying about the team you’re going to play against, you’ve got to worry about your teammates and what they’re going to do to stay healthy and keep you from being unhealthy.
It’s a difficult situation. And especially in this kind of game, it can’t work.
Foreman reflected on his final season in the NFL with the 1980 New England Patriots, a team that went 10-6 but missed the playoffs that year:
Team chemistry plays a big part to be successful. It certainly does. And let me tell you something. When I was in New England, they had more talent than we had (with the Vikings). They were just a young team. They didn’t really have enough guys that knew how to win on that level. They might’ve been great in college and all that, but I’m saying when I got there, the talent the Patriots had, the Vikings didn’t even have. The Vikings did not match the talent they had in New England. But, there was a commitment in Minnesota, and they knew how to win.
It was the type of atmosphere here that made the Vikings successful. And that came from the leadership. Bud Grant and then the leadership of the team — Jim Marshall and Carl Eller and Paul Krause, Mick Tingelhoff and Fran Tarkenton. And Alan Page. All of them led differently. Alan Page was a quiet leader, but he performed. He made his statements on the field. He came to work hard every day, and I admire that guy because he did so much and he didn’t even have to say a whole lot to get that respect.
I’m just saying that they had a lot of really good athletes up in New England and I thought they had more athletes than we had with Minnesota. But we had in Minnesota the things that you needed to have, and that was guys to come in to play a hundred percent, every doggone play.
So, it’s just not the talent you got. It’s what you do with it and how you use it.
He closed his interview with the Pioneer Press, suggesting this year will be Zimmer’s toughest task of his coaching career:
This is going to be (Mike) Zimmer’s toughest coaching job. Now, he’s got to worry if one of the guys is going to be exposing themselves to people, or whether their family has been exposed to somebody. Then they’ve got to come to practice. There’s so many different things that aren’t the norm.
As for the team, I think the talent’s there, no question about it. But it’s just the outside things that might affect them, in my opinion. I mean, now we worry about, “OK, you go play and who’s going to get COVID.”