That is one way of looking at it.

It got me thinking about all the "coulda beens"... Back to that in a moment.

The Vikings poached Flores from Tomlins staff in pittsburgh. Back when Flores was being black balled. The Rooneys & Tomlin hired Flores as a special assistant/ d consultant. Nobody else in the league would even talk to Flores that year when he filed his lawsuit after being fired in Miami. You can bet, Flores remembers that moment.
Art Rooney jr could have cold shouldered flo. Nobody woulda known.

Props to Mr. Rooney! As well, props to the Wilfs. The one season in pitt didnt wash the nfl anger off the flores lawsuit. The wilfs remain one if the "new owners". Probably still at the kiddie table for the league meetings. I dont think they had the cred to sign flores and not get shunned by the other 31 owners. Not until Art Rooney & Tomlin stood up for Flo. Still. It was a courageous move from the owners standpoint to hire the Defensive Genius... I remember going on several rants that spring. Hoping we'd hire flo. But like most of my rants. I thought there was < 10% chance of it coming true.

As for Tomlin. Pitt didnt poach him from us. We choked in the moment by sticking with Childress. The Vikings gad signed Tomlin off the Tampa staff only 1 year prior. And by all accounts. Everybody knew Tomlin was only a short term rental. The Vijings had him in the building. The right of 1st refusal. Instead- the team doubled down on chili dog noodles. If the steelers hadnt grabbed Tomlin in 09, some other team would have.

Which brings me to... The ones that got away.
Pete Carroll, Tony Dungy, Brian Billick. Come to mind. Theres been ithers. Names i no longer remember. Couple o-line coaches. There was a lber coach that went to tampa and was part if the tampa 2 creation. The drafting of John Lynch and that mlber whose name has slipped from memory now. Jack del rio wasnt ever signed as a viking coach. He was a pretty good one. The team kept bud grant in place about 10 years too long. And skipped over tom Moore and Jerry Burns far too many years. Even went to hiring steckle instead of moore who left in anger after getting stiffed in the steckle decision.

Im sure theres others. More recently theyve allowed Grant Udinski & Kevin Stefanski to leave.
Hired Koc instead of Stefanski.

Jimo- allowing your long term guys to leave, its part of why the vikings have lost their identity over the years.
Nothing, no move over the years was a bigger boner than not promoting Buddy Ryan to dc. He had the idea for his 4-6 d under Grant. Grant didnt trust the idea, and.... Buddy Ryan left for chicago in 1980... The innovator leaves and the vikings D deflated in the absence of the coach the players respected most.

If Flores does leave this year. Its the Vikings fault for not recognizing the superior guy while he was in the building.... *Sigh*... Same old Vikings.