Matthew Coller: Behind the scenes of Kevin O'Connell's viral victory speeches

The Vikings head coach sits down with Purple Insider to break down the postgame speeches that the internet loves and that give us a window into his coaching style...

Kevin O'Connell / Minnesota Viking

EAGAN — With players gathered around him in a circle, Kevin O’Connell bounced around like a boxer in the ring. The vein in his neck was popping out and his voice cracking as he shouted out the defense’s top performers.

“Harrison Phillips with a fumble recovery, Byron Murphy with an interception for the third straight game, Gink with a sack and two TFLs, Cash with five tackles and a sack — welcome back, Cash — and I.P. welcome to the show with five tackles and a sack,” O’Connell yelled.

He got extra jacked up when he got to safety Cam Bynum’s name and started pantomiming Bynum’s game-sealing interception.

“Cam Bynum, when we needed it, tracking it, finding it, interception to finish it off,” he screamed as the entire locker room cheered.

O’Connell then announced that every defensive player was getting a game ball.

He wasn’t finished with his postgame speech yet. He turned to the scoring hero of the day, new kicker Parker Romo, who was just signed this week to take the place of injured star rookie Will Reichard.

“All Park did was go 4-of-4,” O’Connell hollered as outside linebacker Jonathan Greenard danced next to Romo and turned the kicker’s hat sideways.

O’Connell handed another ball to long snapper Jake McQuaide, who was also acquired this week due to injury, and mentioned punter Ryan Wright’s save on a high snap.

Before wrapping up and getting on the plane home, he made sure to get a few more things across: “Sam, everybody in this locker room knows that you are the guy that’s going to take us there.”

O’Connell pointed a football at Sam Darnold, who had a tough afternoon with three interceptions.

To conclude, the mic drop: Declaring the next day a “victory Monday” off. The players went nuts.

You won’t see a more intense 2:45 second video on the internet than O’Connell’s postgame monologue following Vikings wins. Within moments of being posted, the video gets spread like wildfire all over the internet. Following Sunday’s win over the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Twitter/X post with his victory speech had 257,000 views and 98,000 views on YouTube within 24 hours.

“Sheesh, he was born for this,” a Vikings fan responded to the Twitter/X post.

That would seem to be the case, indeed, but it so happens that there is more to O’Connell’s postgame messaging than HC being a natural hype man.

The victory speech is a window into who O’Connell is as a coach and his greater philosophy about leading a football team. He uses those energetic moments as another opportunity to reinforce his main message. And it’s a chance for the players, fans and his family to see his passion for leading the Vikings burning at its hottest point.

Purple Insider sat down with Kevin O’Connell one-on-one this week to talk with him about his victory speeches...

No prep

The only thing in football that O’Connell does without preparing is his postgame speeches. There are only so many hours in the week and he can’t spend any of them focused on anything outside of the opponent. By the time game day arrives, all of his brain space has been used up on X’s and O’s, leaving no room for thinking of one liners, catch phrases or shout outs in the postgame locker room. It does, however, pop into his mind as the game is playing out.

“Normally the way it works is, mentally as the game is going on I’m taking [notes], ‘man, that was a huge play, couldn’t imagine not having that Byron Murphy Jr. interception in the second half or Sam overcoming this or Jets getting to certain place,’” O’Connell told Purple Insider.

He does have some help. Executive VP and chief communications officer Jeff Anderson and senior director of communications Jon Ekstrom provide him with player milestones and stats that he might want to bring up. Before coming in to talk, he might write himself a reminder to highlight someone. That happened with tackle Cam Robinson, who arrived via trade mid-week, after the Vikings win over the Colts.

That’s just about all he’s working with when he steps into the ring. The rest is pure stream of consciousness.

“My delivery could sometimes improve because my mind is racing 1,000 miles a minute,” O’Connell said. “It all circles back to the principals that I feel are most important are me being authentic, even in those moments. It can’t be predetermined. And having a little bit of humility. I have to be able to let these guys know that I’m not perfect.”

Just because it isn’t prearranged doesn’t mean it’s lacking in intent. He takes center stage with the idea that he can hammer home core concepts that he has been emphasizing since the Vikings started OTAs back in the spring. Specifically speaking, O’Connell was well aware that prognosticators were projecting the Vikings to finish last in the NFC North and that Vegas had their win-loss line set at 6.5 wins. Rather than playing the “we don’t hear the outside noise” game, O’Connell leaned into the low expectations of the outside world, telling his team repeatedly that he believed they were much, much better than that. Every victory speech has an air of, “I told you we could do this.”

“I made a pact with our team that, I always tell them that I’m going to be honest with them in regards to expectations,” he said. “I hope the expectations that they have for themselves and that I have for this team outweigh anything out there. If not, then I’m not doing my job. That gives me an incredible runway to tell our guys when it’s not good enough or what they need to improve for the team.”

There have been several games this year that the Vikings have won in ugly fashion. They nearly let a lead slip against the Jets in London and they barely escaped Jacksonville with a 12-7 victory.

Both times it was the same message about believing they can overcome the rocky moments.

“Sometimes in this league, s— is going to feel a little sloppy at times, sometimes in this league adversity is going to hit but not one time did I feel anybody on our football team truly doubt that we were going to come in here 1-0 with our fifth win,” he said after the W against the Jets.

“Not one flinch, these are the ones you f—ing remember,” he said post-Jags victory.

Message received

When running back Aaron Jones found out that O’Connell’s speeches were going viral each week, he was surprised. He thought about it for a second and said, “I should have known it goes viral because my mom will be like, ‘hey, I see what coach said.’”

Jones can’t get enough of listening to O’Connell speak. If only we could see the pregame talks in the hotel the night before the game, he joked.

“He captures everybody's attention in the room,” Jones said.

What the veteran running back likes most about the post-win ceremony is when people outside of the star players get highlighted. Certainly players like Jones and All-Pro receiver Justin Jefferson has received their fair share of game balls but O’Connell going out of his way to include others resonates with Jones. The new kicker, for example, or even equipment manager Mike Parson, who previously worked in Houston and got a game ball after a win against the Texans.

“He lifts everybody up,” Jones said. “It's just so real….he makes everybody feel a part [of the win], which we are all a part of it.”

Star pass rusher Jonathan Greenard agrees.

“I feel like KO makes everybody feel wanted, appreciated,” Greenard said. “No matter what the job, big or small. All jobs are huge here.”

Again, there is intent behind that.

“I think it’s important that everybody in that room knows that they are a part of it,” O’Connell said. “The power of belonging is a powerful thing.”

But Greenard’s favorite thing about the KOC postgame locker room show is that the message in the turbo speeches isn’t different from the one that players are hearing on a daily basis inside TCO Performance Center.

“After the games it just solidifies what he’s already talked about all week,” the Vikings leader in QB pressures said. “It feels great to know that he’s not bulls—ing you. He’s never bulls—ed us once. It gives you more confidence because he believes in what he’s talking about.”

Pro Bowl right tackle Brian O’Neill said that fans are seeing a tiny snippet of O’Connell’s coaching style, the tip of the iceberg.

“We get a lot more reinforcement from him than a five minute speech,” O’Neill said. “For us it’s another touch point with the coach to drive home some key points. That’s just one soundbite of something we live and breathe with him throughout the week. It’s good to hear but we hear that a lot more and we know the ‘why’ behind it... [The postgame speech] is not necessarily where we get belief in ourselves from him because we have a lot more hours with him throughout the week.”

But if the speech didn’t match what was going on behind the scenes, it would ring hallow, right?

“Yes, for sure,” O’Neill said.

Veteran cornerback Shaq Griffin feels that O’Connell’s strategy to push the idea that they were going to overachieve outside expectations was vital for the team mentally. It prepared them for what it was going to feel like when everyone was talking about them as a surprise team.

“He made it easier by telling us early on what would happen,” Griffin said. “I’ve been around teams where we didn’t have that type of talk and then once it started to happen we were up on a pedestal just to fall back down.”

Griffin, who received a game ball after beating his former Houston team, has played for five different organizations and a host of different types of coaches. He’s reminded of one Super Bowl champion coach in particular when it comes to the victory speeches.

“I’ve been in a locker room like that before early in my career with [ex-Seahawks coach] Pete Carroll, those speeches sound a lot the same,” Griffin said. “KO is a younger version of someone like Pete Carroll. I’ve also been around teams where they don’t do anything like this. The acknowledgement means more than KO can actually imagine.”

While the main theme of the year is the team’s belief in itself, Greenard wants to make something clear about O’Connell’s speeches: The positive messages shouldn’t be mistaken for the head coach having his heads in the clouds.

“He has that grittiness that people underestimate because he’s laid back sometimes,” Greenard said. “He can take it there. He has a look in his eye sometimes where, it’s like, ‘KO is on some sh— today.’ It’s like, if KO is on some sh— today, we’ve gotta be way ahead of where he’s at. He truly wants it so bad and it’s infectious with us. We all want it just as bad. To see KO come out there with the fire, it’s great.”

Winning is hard

The Vikings win over the Jaguars marked the 27th time O’Connell has given a victory speech. In a handful of them, he has had to choke back his emotions midway through.

“I’ve told our team before, I have no idea why I’m getting emotional right now and they’re just like, ‘go with it,’ and I’m like, ‘OK!’” O’Connell said.

It could be that by the time everyone reaches that locker room after the game, they have used every ounce of energy that they have left. Between the concentration level, noise, physical exertion and tension of a close game, any wall that would be holding back the raw feeling of everyone involved has been torn down.

“There’s not many games, so much preparation, so much sacrifice away from our families, when it happens it’s an emotional thing,” O’Connell said.

There aren’t many times that it comes easy to anyone in the NFL. Since KOC arrived, 33 of his 43 games have finished with the final margin within one score.

“No matter what the Sunday is like in the NFL, it’s very rare that you come out of that thing being like, man, that was easy,” O’Connell said. “It’s always hard. It’s hard to win. Everybody is talented, everybody is well coached. When that clock hits zero you don’t get more time.”

The emotion also comes from the extreme sense of relief that the head coach feels when his team has gotten the job done that week.

“I tell people all the time that winning is like a 3 out of 10 enjoyment because I’m onto the next and looking forward and losing is a 5,000 out of 10 on the misery side,” O’Connell said.

While it may be more miserable to lose than joyful to win, the sheer happiness from those speeches are what have made them so popular. Even O’Connell’s wife has told him that she watches to see how happy he is after winning.

It could be that he gets more out of what those wins mean to the players than himself.

“I’ve talked about my ‘why’ and the night before we played the Giants, I told them, just so you guys know, my ‘why’ is to experience [winning] with you guys and see the looks on all of your faces when I know that all the work that’s been put into it was just recognized with going 1-0 that day,” O’Connell said. “That’s our time to really enjoy it.”

Each Sunday is about going 1-0 but not all victories are worth just one in the standings column. O’Connell’s time in Minnesota has featured some particularly memorable postgame locker rooms. He names the 2022 comeback overtime win over Buffalo, Josh Dobbs’s game off the bench against Atlanta as his favorite victory speeches. And there will never be another first — O’Connell’s debut win over division rival Green Bay. In that one, quarterback Kirk Cousins stood in the middle of the locker room and presented him and GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah with game balls.

“These guys are leading the organization and we’re going to go as far as they can take us,” Cousins said.

“All the way!” somebody yelled from the back.

No chance that was only a 3-out-of-10 happiness moment.

“There’s no drug or high in the world that can emulate the feeling of winning an NFL game and being in the locker room with everybody who helped make that happen,” O’Neill said. “You play the games for the feelings like that.”

If he’s being completely honest, O’Connell would tell you that he doesn’t always love his rawest feelings after a win being on display for the world to see. He rarely bristles at questions about anything but recoils sometimes when he’s asked in press conferences about specific things he said in the postgame speech. He noted that there’s another set of game balls that go out on Monday after the coaching staff has watched the tape that’s a little more on the private side.

But O’Connell gives the thumbs up to the Vikings Entertainment Network team because he wants the fan base to feel like they are in the locker room celebrating too.

“Sharing these winning locker room postgame speeches brings fans right to the heart of these meaningful celebratory team moments,” Vikings vice president, content & production Bryan Harper said. “It’s no surprise that our winning locker room postgame speeches consistently rank at the top of our most engaging and highly viewed content offerings.”

The Vikings digital team shared this email from a fan named Laurie about her view of the head coach’s postgame festivities.

“I LOVE having a peek on what is said post game to players,” she wrote. “So positive, motivating, inspiring. So fun to watch these young men’s response when so fully recognized the way they deservedly are.  Pride, humility, joy, love for each other and such enthusiasm from the entire team as each teammate recognized!”

Always a coach, O’Connell has a few evaluations for himself. He is trying to bounce around less while he’s talking. He was proud of his effort in that area after the win over the Colts but got back to jumping around in Jacksonville. He also used more colorful language than he wants, considering his own family’s young eyes are watching.

“I’ve had to kind of watch my language a little more,” O’Connell said. “If they’re bleeping out half of it, my kids are now old enough to understand that they had to bleep that because dad said something he shouldn’t have.”