Football Across Minnesota: Why the Vikings’ victory Sunday was seven months in the making

FOOTBALL ACROSS MINNESOTA | Week 5

LONDON – The Vikings’ 23-17 victory here Sunday over the New York Jets started seven months ago, when a group of team directors from various departments made a March scouting trip to the United Kingdom to create a logistics plan.

The group crammed a lot of meetings into several days and at the end, a few of them visited a pub to unwind and discuss all the work ahead of them.

They made a vow to return to that same pub after the game for a toast.

“We said, after this game we’re going to come right back here and have a pint,” said Mike Parson, director of equipment services. “That’s going to cap the trip.”

NFL teams that play in London cannot afford to treat these trips as European vacations. Precision and execution in making the experience feel as close to a normal road game as possible is vital because one loss can make the difference between making or missing the playoffs, or earning home-field advantage in the postseason.

Professional athletes are driven by routine. Traveling to Europe and playing a game with a six-hour time difference isn’t routine. The support staff’s mission was to make this trip as smooth as possible.

The Vikings came, they won and now head into their bye week at 5-0.

Mission accomplished, and here’s how they pulled it off:

The first item of business when a team receives a London game is to make sure every player and staff member has an updated passport. The Minneapolis passport agency visited team headquarters in the summer to handle any processing that was needed.

The Vikings brought 180 people to London on the football side (players, coaches, staff). That number is around 150 for normal road games, but the team brought practice squad players and additional doctors to London.

Paul Martin, director of team operations in his 20th season with the Vikings, made the advance trip in the spring. His itinerary included meetings with representatives from two hotels, a transportation company, a hospital, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, chefs that prepare meals for players and a shipping company that handled the team’s cargo. He also had regular updates with Virgin Airlines (the team flies Delta domestically).

The hospital visit was to create a plan in case of an acute injury. The Vikings experienced this scenario in their 2022 visit when safety Lewis Cine suffered a serious leg fracture that required surgery. The busing situation is especially tricky because, unlike in NFL cities, police escorts are not provided for the team. Trying to plan an ETA with London traffic is guesswork. Martin said he “still sweats bullets” because many travel issues are out of his control.

“You’re never comfortable,” he said.

Coach Kevin O’Connell invites Martin to address players before the trip to give them a sense of what to expect.

The Vikings had a new wrinkle this trip. With the bye this week, O’Connell allowed the team to stay an extra night so that players could explore London with their families after the game. Ordinarily, the team checks out of the hotel the morning of the game and leaves straight for the airport from the stadium.

On Sunday, the Vikings checked out of their initial hotel on the outskirts of London, went to the stadium, played the game and then checked into a different hotel in the heart of the city.

That required more planning for Martin. The team flew home Monday afternoon.

“I wouldn’t say it’s become a normal road trip by any means,” said Martin, now a veteran of four London games, “but it’s definitely easier.”

Parson, the equipment director, works out every morning at 6 a.m. For months, he had a one-track mind during those sessions.

“Throughout the whole hour of working out,” he said, “I’m thinking about it.

“Ever since we’ve known that we are going to be going to London, it’s kind of consumed my life.”

His motto in deciding what inventory to bring: Better to have it and not need it.

“We take a lot of stuff,” he said. For a normal road game, the equipment staff packs 18,000 pounds of cargo that includes equipment, gear and supplies. Parson expected the weight to increase to more than 20,000 pounds for this trip.

The packing began in the summer. Customs restrictions required the Vikings to have supplies brought in by ship so the cargo could be examined. In early July, a truck picked up 10 pallets containing sports drinks, water, toiletries, nutritional supplements and various supplies, and transported the load to New York where it awaited to be shipped to the U.K. a few weeks before the game.

Parson kept asking himself: What could somebody ask for? What problems could arise?

“We’re always thinking worst-case scenarios,” he said. “It’s like an airplane. There’s redundancy everywhere.”

During his spring visit, Parson inspected the practice field at the hotel and the locker room. His mission: plan so well that the team could operate as close to normal as possible upon arrival.

“I like challenges,” he said. “This is one of those things that kind of knocks you off your routine a little bit, but it’s exciting.”

Parson checked the forecast every day for several weeks before leaving last week.

“If the weather [forecast] is going to be beautiful,” he said, “we still prepare like it’s going to rain.”

It rained during the game.

Tyler Williams is the team’s vice president of player health and performance, which means it’s his job to make sure players are prepared physically and mentally to play at peak performance 4,000 miles from home.

“Our goal is to make them feel like — as much as you can — that it’s home away from home,” he said.

Task No. 1: Sleep.

Pro athletes often cite sleep as a critical factor in their performance. The six-hour time change disrupts their normal sleep cycle and circadian rhythm, their internal biological clock.

“We try to make sure our travel strategies align with that to cause the least disruption,” Williams said. “First and foremost, we think about sleep.”

The Vikings have traveled on different days to London in their four trips. They chose to fly overnight Thursday and arrive Friday morning this time, and their schedule called for players to be active almost immediately after landing. They practiced shortly after arriving at the hotel.

“Get them acclimated as quick as we can,” Williams said. “Our bodies work on a lot of the environmental factors. I don’t want to say ‘adjust’ because you’re not really fully adjusting to it. You’re trying to mitigate the effects of it.”

Nutrition is another critical piece. The team brings its chef while also consulting with hotel staff to make sure meals provide proper nutrition. The team’s chef and dietitian visited London beforehand to discuss the meal plan and recipes, as well as ship food items over in advance.

“You’ve got to find a way to fuel their tanks,” Williams said of players. “You can only drive so far on half of a tank of gas.”

Cine’s injury two seasons ago underscored the importance of having a detailed medical plan. He suffered compound fractures to his tibia and fibula and underwent surgery in London. Williams’ staff conducts mock scenarios to create a plan of action, including identifying which Vikings staff member stays behind if a player requires hospitalization.

The plan also included packing everything necessary to have a pop-up athletic training room at the hotel and stadium.

“It’s a lot of preparation for one game,” Williams said, “but it’s very important.”

Passengers exiting the London Underground transit system at Tottenham Court Road last week were greeted by animations of Vikings players at the Outernet, an entertainment district with towering LED screens. The franchise set up shop at the Outernet and splashed digital billboards here, and elsewhere across the city and U.K., to market its brand.

“We’re taking over, in my opinion, an entire country,” said Keisha Wyatt, the team’s director of international marketing.

The takeover was several years in the making. In 2022, the Vikings were accepted into the NFL’s Global Markets Program, which gives teams international marketing rights in foreign countries. The Vikings have GMP rights in two countries: Canada and the UK. The agreement allows the Vikings to conduct marketing promotions, host events and sell commercial sponsorships to partners.

The organization hired Wyatt in 2022 to lead their marketing strategy abroad.

“We didn’t just want to show up one time and disappear,” Wyatt said. “We wanted to stay consistent. It’s a big investment to stay relevant in those markets.”

The goal was that “people in the U.K. will know about us and become fans,” Wyatt said.

They hit the mark, judging by the amount of people dressed in purple throughout London this past week.

Greenwood Sports Pub served as the official gathering spot for Vikings fans. A weeklong schedule of events hosted by the organization included an eight-team coed flag football tournament for middle schoolers in Newcastle, tailgate parties, alumni appearances and their marketing blitz.

“It’s a business goal and objective to win in that space,” Wyatt said.

The Vikings achieved their main goals. They were well-prepared. They won the game. They flew home 5-0.

The team directors’ return visit to the pub? Didn’t happen. Too busy. Can’t win ‘em all.

. . .

WEEKEND REWIND

The five best things we saw on social media this weekend:

“It’s a big call, but it wasn’t very hard [to make]. How often do you have an inch to go to beat USC? You don’t have it very often.”

— Gophers coach P.J. Fleck on his decision to go for it on fourth-and-goal at the 1 instead of kicking a field goal with less than a minute left in a tie game with No. 11 USC.

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UP NEXT

Moorhead vs. Alexandria, 7 p.m., Friday, Alexandria High. This is a battle of the top two-ranked teams in the state in Class 5A. Both are undefeated. Both teams average 40-plus points per game. This sets up as a heavyweight matchup.

. . .

A FAM FINAL WORD

I awoke Sunday morning at 4:45 a.m. in London to find a series of texts and tweets about the Gophers’ upset of USC. I saw images of fans storming onto the field to celebrate with players and other fans. Moments like that are what make college football so special. Players and students who got to experience that moment will remember it forever.

. . .

Thank you for reading Football Across Minnesota (FAM), my weekly column that tours football topics in our state from preps to pros. I’ll publish this column on Tuesday mornings. I appreciate feedback, so please reach out anytime. Thanks again — Chip (@chipscoggins on X; email me at anthony.scoggins@startribune.com)

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