Paul Allen Suspicious of Kevin O’Connell Trade Rumors; Questions Timing of Initial Report…
The Minnesota Vikings put together and incredible season despite ugly projections. Unfortunately the final couple of weeks were a sinking ship and plenty of rumors swirled.
The future of Sam Darnold became too prevalent and the talk of trading head coach Kevin O’Connell took off. Whether those things became a distraction isn’t something anyone is willing to admit. The voice of the Vikings, Paul Allen, isn’t dismissing it though.
Did Kevin O’Connell trade rumors derail the Minnesota Vikings?
As the Minnesota Vikings prepared to play the Detroit Lions, a shockwave was sent through the building. Could head coach, and Coach of the Year candidate, Kevin O’Connell really be gone? Jay Glazer reported as much. Paul Allen wasn’t thrilled by the timing.
Did @JayGlazer derail the #Vikings season when he dropped the trading HC Kevin O’Connell rumor last Sunday before the #Lions game? @PAOnTheMic seems to question the timing of it and briefly discusses how it impacted the team that day in Detroit and also Glendale 👀
— The Purple Persuasion (@TPPSkol) January 14, 2025
PA,… pic.twitter.com/hFs09k52LH
“[The most respected NFL insiders], they get so many rumors, and they get put on so many leads, that they probably go with less than 5%. So, they’re really good at parsing their way through them to determine, alright, what’s the agenda here?”
“It’s the timing… I’m just going to lay it out like this. If that rumor came from Kevin O’Connell’s agent, and I don’t even know what his agent’s name is, shame on him. And shame on everybody involved with that rumor, if it came from there. Because it deflects attention from a game that day to secure a one-seed for a 14-win team.”
Paul Allen on the O’Connell trade rumors (KFAN)
When Paul Allen speaks, we should listen
There is almost no secondary party more connected to the inner workings of the team than Allen. He has been the voice of the Vikings forever, and he obviously travels with the group as well. PA recounted how that news spread throughout the hotel, pregame, and postgame, suggesting that it affected the team’s play in week 18 vs the Lions and beyond.
“I don’t know where this thing came from, man, but I just know what it was like being in Troy, Michigan at the team hotel when it popped, and then the conversations on the sideline before the game, and the conversations after the game, and some conversations I had last night with people about the future of the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings…”
Paul Allen on the O’Connell trade rumors (KFAN)
Related: Kevin O’Connell Blames Minnesota Vikings O-line After Loss
Of course you’d love to act as though information doesn’t bother anyone. Players are humans though, and there are ripple effects from that sort of news getting out.
It’s one thing for Kevin O’Connell, or his agent who has his interests in mind, to be disappointed that the Wilf’s haven’t already gotten an extension done. It’s entirely different to air that frustration in a way that detracts from the tasks at hand and generates a level of distraction.
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I’m just starting to try to figure out, I’m not going to pursue this, but like… how? Why? Why at that time. And if it came from anybody associated with Kevin O’Connell’s camp, I’m just going to say it as bluntly as I can. Shame on you. That’s selfish and it lacks self-awareness, and it jettisons the totality of a team, and it takes it from ‘thy’ to ‘I’.
Paul Allen on the O’Connell trade rumors (KFAN)
Paul Allen’s frustration and admonishment isn’t unfounded either. This is typically stuff done by diva players. Justin Jefferson never went that route while securing a massive new payday. As good as O’Connell is as a coach, there was no reason for this to ever become a story, at the moment it did… a conundrum that is clearly bothering the “Voice of the Vikings”.
The Vikings should lock O’Connell up into the foreseeable future. The head coach could also come out, as Mike Tomlin has, and put any rumors of trading for him in their grave.
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