Getty Vikings head athletic trainer Eric Sugarman (left) was let go by the organization on March 7, 2022, the Star Tribune reported.
Changes don’t stop hitting the Minnesota Vikings organization — most recently, the ousting of longtime head trainer Eric Sugarman.
“#Vikings are parting ways with head athletic trainer Eric Sugarman after 16 years with the team,” the Star Tribune Ben Goessling’s reported Tuesday, March 7.
Hired by Rick Spielman in 2006, Sugarman spanned the entire Spielman era and had become one of the NFL’s most well-known head trainers. He helped Adrian Peterson come back from an ACL injury to win the 2021 Most Valuable Player award and successfully handled Teddy Bridgewater’s injury in 2016.
But amid those notable successes were likely unfavorable reviews of Sugarman, who was promoted to vice president of sports medicine in 2018 and the team’s infection control officer in 2020 and 2021.
One former player spoke out on Sugarman’s treatment of him, adding another layer of reported difficulties inside TCO Performance Center.
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‘Eric Sugarman Was Not a Good Man’
Following the announcement of Sugarman’s departure, former Vikings defensive end Ifeadi Odenigbo shared his far from a positive experience with Sugarman in his four seasons in Minnesota.
“Eric Sugarman was not a good man so whatever narrative you guys think of him it’s been fabricated,” Odenigbo tweeted, per InsideTheVikings. “It was my rookie year with the Vikings. I was put on practice squad during the season, I had a small injury and I wanted to get treatment, so I asked the trainers to see me. Eric Sugarman tells me ‘I wish I got paid 6 [figures] to work 3 times a week’ then he proceeded to ignore me. This [is] one of many stories and encounters people had with him on a regular [basis].”
InsideTheVikings’ Will Ragatz added that Jeff Badet and Jaleel Johnson co-signed Odenigbo’s tweets on social media.
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Recent Questionable Moves by Vikings Training Staff
While Sugarman’s notable recoveries of Peterson and Bridgewater are commendable, the Vikings have had their share of poor decisions when it comes to player health
Sugarman was involved when Sam Bradford reaggravated a knee injury in 2017 with what was deemed a “bone bruise.” He missed three weeks and, upon his return, reaggravated the injury and required season-ending arthroscopic surgery.
However, decisions on player health came on the impetus of ex-head coach Mike Zimmer.
Star Tribune beat reporters Ben Goessling and Andrew Krammer addressed Zimmer’s unwillingness to accept analytics on Vikings Access podcast at the time of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s hiring as general manager on January 26.
“Those buzzwords — analytics, data — gets thrown around and not a lot of it gets detailed in sports writing of what that actually means — how it actually manifests itself on the field. One way is through that GPS tracking data (on players’ jerseys) where it’s, ‘Hey, this guy has put on a lot of mileage a lot of stress. His hamstrings are about to give out at this point. Coach, let’s not run him too hard on a Wednesday,” Krammer said. “And Mike Zimmer might say, ‘Bah. What are you talking about? We practice today. We got to play on Sunday.”
Goessling interjected, referring to Anthony Barr reaggravating a hamstring injury late in the 2021 season, that the team may not have taken the proper precautions. Barr suffered the injury in training camp and sat out the first four games before returning to the playing field. He missed another two games with the same injury.
Here’s the rest of their exchange regarding the past regime, comparing Spielman:
Goessling: Or like a 40-degree day in December when he’s coming back from a hamstring injury… Just to throw one out there.
Kramer: The coach not being receptive of (analytics), that stuff happened too often and cannot happen with whoever the 10th head coach is for the Minnesota Vikings.
Goessling: It happened a lot… we’re hinting at it here, but it happened a lot and we’ll probably have more to say about it going forward… but it happened a lot.