Inside The Vikings

Watch Kevin O'Connell's first post-win locker room speech in a while

It had been over a month, but O'Connell finally got to break out a celebratory speech again.
Will Ragatz|
Dec 7, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell during the first half at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Dec 7, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell during the first half at U.S. Bank Stadium. | Brad Rempel-Imagn Images

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Minnesota Vikings

The Vikings did quite a bit of winning, at least in the regular season, in Kevin O'Connell's first few years as their head coach. One result of their success is that O'Connell became somewhat known for his post-win locker room speeches, which the team posts on social media after victories.

Because the Vikings had lost their last four games, we hadn't gotten to see a celebratory speech from KOC in over a month. That changed after Sunday's emphatic 31-0 win over the Commanders. Even with the Vikings no longer in playoff contention, there was a mix of joy and relief in the home locker room at U.S. Bank Stadium.

It ended up being a pretty good speech from O'Connell, too. He gave props to the offense for starting fast, putting together a 98-yard touchdown drive, and finishing with 162 rushing yards on the day. Everyone on offense got a game ball, including J.J. McCarthy, who had the best game of his young career with three touchdown passes and no turnovers.

Defensively, game balls went to the three Vikings players who forced takeaways in the game: Harrison Smith, Andrew Van Ginkel, and Javon Hargrave. "You want to throw a bubble screen to Gink's side, best of luck to you," O'Connell said. A game ball also went to former Commanders defensive tackle Jonathan Allen, who had a couple tackles and a couple quarterback hits against his old team.

The last part of O'Connell's message was about what he told the team the night before the game, which was for each player to go out and play for the 16-year-old version of themselves.

"When you can persevere and do it through the really hard times — and I don't need to be a news-breaker here that it's been hard times at times this year," O'Connell said. "But you guys deserved this. You guys deserved this. I told you last night how much I appreciate the way you guys show up every single day. Because it could be easy to find that exit ramp, to say maybe we'll be better off next year.

"Or you can work. Or you can just grind. Or you can just lean in because (this) has gotta matter if you love this game like you did when you were 16 years old. So make sure you think about, like I asked you last night, you think about your 16-year-old version of yourself and would he proud of what you did today? Hell yeah he would.

"Now can we just consistently do it? We've got plenty of football left to challenge each other, challenge me, challenge our coaching staff. Every day, we're just trying to be the best version of this year's team, with all the lessons we've learned throughout. I'm so proud of you guys."

You can watch the full speech here.

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Will Ragatz
WILL RAGATZ

Will Ragatz is a senior writer for Vikings On SI, who also covers the Twins, Timberwolves, Gophers, and other Minnesota teams. He is a credentialed Minnesota Vikings beat reporter, covering the team extensively at practices, games and throughout the NFL draft and free agency period. Ragatz attended Northwestern University, where he studied at the prestigious Medill School of Journalism. During his time as a student, he covered Northwestern Wildcats football and basketball for SB Nation’s Inside NU, eventually serving as co-editor-in-chief in his junior year. In the fall of 2018, Will interned in Sports Illustrated’s newsroom in New York City, where he wrote articles on Major League Baseball, college football, and college basketball for SI.com.

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