Coaching Pals Zimmer, Patterson Share Diverse Views On Vikes

MINNEAPOLIS -- AP -- Mike Zimmer and Andre Patterson have worked together for four different teams. Theirs is a football friendship of white and Black coaches that was renewed when Zimmer was hired by the Minnesota Vikings in 2014 and put Patterson on his staff.

Vikings players initiated deep discussions about race and justice on Thursday, responding to the police shooting of a Black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin, four days earlier. Zimmer was startled to hear Patterson reveal his own frightening history of having guns drawn on him by police for no apparent infraction.