Reporter's blunder in quoting KOC created chaos involving Sam Darnold

Late on Thursday night, veteran Detroit Free Press reporter Dave Birkett caused quite a stir with this tweet while covering the NFL Honors show in New Orleans:

"Kevin O’Connell in his Coach of the Year news conference: Our goal is to win a championship and Sam Darnold is going to be a huge part of it when we do it. Sure sounds like Vikings want to ride with Darnold next year."

The collective reaction from Vikings fans on social media was 'Wait, what? Did he really say that?' That would've been a pretty significant admission from Minnesota's head coach regarding Darnold, who is set to hit free agency next month. It seemed very unlike O'Connell, who is always guarded in making sure he doesn't reveal too much to the public.

Birkett doubled down multiple times in reponse to confused fans. "Damn, Vikings fans mad their coach publicly supports his QB," he posted. And then another quote tweet, when asked if O'Connell actually said that: "Wtf? Yeah he actually said that. Someone asked him about Darnold and that was his answer. I wasn’t recording it cause I wasn't writing about it."

The alleged quote happened in a short press conference at the awards show. Shortly after, O'Connell held a conference call with Minnesota media members, where he was asked about the quote and clarified his stance, saying "I don't necessarily think that was 100% accurate."

Well, the mystery has since been solved. Birkett simply messed up. The Vikings' YouTube channel posted a video of the five-minute presser in question, and O'Connell was very much talking about Justin Jefferson, not Darnold, when he said "try to bring Minnesota a championship, he's going to be a huge part of it when we do it."

The previous question O'Connell was asked was about Darnold, to which he said "I'm glad to be part of his quarterback journey, a chapter in that quarterback journey that was so successful for him." He was then asked about Jefferson, whose name he said multiple times surrounding the "he's going to be a huge part of (winning a Super Bowl)" line that Birkett ran with.

So that's what happened, which explains why O'Connell was probably confused when he was asked about the misrepresented quote that night. It's one thing for Birkett to mess up, but to double down and not delete the tweet (as of this story's publication) is somewhat odd from an accomplished veteran reporter.

It's abundantly clear in this video that O'Connell was talking about Justin Jefferson, not Sam Darnold.

I understand messing up, it happens, but it's bizarre that the Detroit reporter's tweet is still up — and that he's doubled down since then. C'mon man. https://t.co/wT7YC7BYko pic.twitter.com/GKTmeSHxFD
— Will Ragatz (@WillRagatz) February 7, 2025

Whether or not Darnold returns to the Vikings in free agency remains very much up in the air. The team has young QB J.J. McCarthy waiting in the wings if Darnold lands elsewhere.

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