After beating the Chicago Bears 31-17 on Sunday to finish the season 8-9, the Minnesota Vikings decided to part ways with their Head Coach and General Manager on what many NFL fans know as “Black Monday,” a day after the regular season ends and the offseason for the majority of the league begins.

Head Coach Mike Zimmer had been with the organization for eight years, compiling a 72-56-1 record while leading the Vikings to three post seasons, highlight by a 2017 NFC title game appearance. Zimmer began his career as a defensive backs coach and won a Super Bowl with the Dallas Cowboys (1994) before becoming a Defensive Coordinator for the Cowboys (’00-’06), Atlanta Falcons (2007) and Cincinnati Bengals (’08-’13). Zimmer’s defenses while in Minnesota ranked near the top with the 2017 squad ranking #1. This season however, the Vikings dropped to the bottom, ranking 31st. This is the first time in Zimmer’s career he’s been fired.

GM Rick Spielman had been with the Vikings since 2006, becoming the General Manager in 2012. As GM, Spielman found more draft booms than busts, but his last draft class had misses with Kellen Mond, the third round QB out of Texas A&M not seeing any action even with starter Kirk Cousin on the COVID Reserve list. First round pick, Left tackle Christian Darrisaw did not start until a Week 6 win at Carolina while recovering from two offseason surgeries to repair a core injury.

The pair will forever be connected with Minnesota for the highs of the 2017 season, as well as the historic signing on Kirk Cousins. The Vikings will begin their search for their new front office and coaching staff as soon as today with the departure of two of the longest tenure Coaches/GM pairs in the league.