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The year was 1990. I was in my first year of covering the Vikings for the Star Tribune, and I was trying to develop contacts around the NFL.
In those days of wide-open access and seemingly unlimited travel budgets, I could go pretty much anywhere there might be a good story.
So, when the Vikings played against the Giants in New Jersey, I asked to spend some time with then-Jets defensive coordinator Pete Carroll, a former Vikings assistant, favorite of Bud Grant’s and a potential future Vikings head coach. In fact, he would finish second to Dennis Green when the Vikings made their next coaching hire in 1992.
I sat around Carroll’s office, chatting with him, and a linebackers coach named Monte Kiffin joined in.
Kiffin died Thursday at 84. I would first cover Kiffin as a linebacker coach. He would go on to popularize the Tampa-2 defense, win a Super Bowl as a defensive coordinator under Tony Dungy with Tampa Bay, and become revered as one of the greatest assistant coaches in NFL history.
He belongs in the Hall of Fame, along with two other former Vikings assistants — Jerry Burns, who as Grant’s offensive coordinator created a version of what would later become known as the West Coast offense, and Tom Moore, who ran the Colts offense when they won the Super Bowl.
To use a phrase from Kiffin’s era, he was a firecracker. Energetic and passionate, he would draw up a play on the nearest scrap of paper if you asked, or even if you didn’t.
He was the Vikings defensive coordinator in 1991 and their linebackers coach, when Dungy was hired to be defensive coordinator, in 1992.
After the ’91 season, he called and asked me out to lunch, then thanked me for not being more critical of the coaching staff during Burns’ last season, when the team finished 8-8.
We stayed in touch over the years, until I asked him over the phone about the…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/souhan-monte-kiffin-hall-fame-235900748.html
Author : Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
Publish date : 2024-07-14 23:59:00
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