Vikings great Paul Krause sounds off about Mike Zimmer
It's been 43 years since Paul Krause retired from the NFL and 24 years since he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Have any coaches reached out to him asking how he set the NFL record for interceptions?
"No coach has ever asked me how I did it. Not one football coach," Krause said Tuesday, speaking with Dan Cole on KFAN radio at a Vikings charity golf event. Among the coaches who apparently didn't bother asking Krause for advice is ex-Vikings head coach and defensive backs guru Mike Zimmer.
"Basically, the last couple years the Vikings defense got beat deep. And quite a few times. I told Zimmer, I says, 'you got the best strong safety in football (Harrison Smith), leave him there and let him play strong safety and then find somebody that can't get beat deep.'"
Related: The truth and lies of pinning Vikings' past failures on Mike Zimmer
Krause said Hall of Fame Vikings coach Bud Grant had one piece of advice for him when he joined the Vikings in 1968: "Don't get beat deep," Krause recalled Grant telling him.
"I would say something else but I better not, about the ex coach that was here. But, you know, him being a defensive guru does not do anything for me," Krause said of Zimmer. "I'd like to talk to him because I"ll tell you something, I was out there doing it and none of these guys have not done it."
Krause, 80, still holds the NFL record for interceptions with 81
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.