As the last eight seconds ticked off the Croke Park clock in Dublin on Sunday, after Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers took a final knee to secure a 24–21 victory, the Vikings filtered onto the field in disappointment. But the biggest win of the weekend, for the league at least, was already in hand.
What was waiting for the Vikings across the Irish Sea assured that.
By then, most of the heavy lifting on Minnesota’s unprecedented two-country turn was done. That much was apparent to everyone in the next day’s traveling party, as the team moved from Ireland to the United Kingdom. The Vikings will become the first NFL team to play international games in different countries in consecutive weeks on Sunday when they meet the Browns at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Making it happen was more difficult than you might realize. And for individuals like director of team operations Paul Martin, the process of setting the table for this most complicated of weeks began before the schedule was finalized.
Martin first learned of the possibility of back-to-back international games while his high-level Vikings colleagues were attending the March owners meetings. Long-time EVP of football operations Rob Brzezinski called to inform him that the idea of a back-to-back Ireland/U.K. event was on the table, and asked him a simple question: How doable is this? Martin’s immediate response was that he didn’t know. From there, he dove into a recon effort to get Brzezinski the best answer he could.
“It was knowing that when we get to London, the expectation is we’re up and running basically when we hit the ground,” Martin said. “It was figuring out how we were going to pull that off. So [the biggest thing was] figuring out how we could get our things in [those places] without having a second set of everything,”
So how did they do it?
First and foremost, it was the result of considerable effort from many individuals. Martin was the person I spoke with, but he emphasized the importance of a massive team effort, from the work of his own boss, Chad Lundeen, to his lieutenants, Milan Burgess and Chuck Petersen, to other vital support staff members such as director of equipment Mike Parson, and countless others.
All of that is why, when the Vikings traveled on Monday, the expectation was that it wouldn’t be that much different, other than the scenery, than flying to Detroit, Chicago or Green Bay for the players. Here’s what Martin & Co. were up against in pulling the cross-country trip together.
Travel challenges
- The Vikings have been on trips to London before—they went last year, with this being the team’s fifth trip there since 2013. Getting everyone’s passports squared away well ahead of time wasn’t a problem. What complicated it was getting everyone’s ETA (Electronic Travel Authorisation) in order. What’s an ETA? It’s a new document that was introduced this year and is now required for people coming from countries where a travel visa isn’t necessary to enter the U.K.
- Timing was a question, too. The Vikings initially considered spending the week in Ireland, then traveling to the U.K., but the practice field situation (the field was located on the grounds of their hotel in England, an hour away in Dublin) prompted them to go to London earlier.
- For the first time in their experience, they had to line up their own international airline travel (usually the league handles it). They used Delta, their regular carrier, but that came with extra work, as well. “The biggest piece being that Delta doesn’t fly Dublin to [London] Stansted Airport,” Martin said. “That’s not a route that they have much history with. They don’t have staff at Stansted, so piecing all that together, Who’s going to do the ground handling? Who’s gonna do the boarding cards? Who’s gonna do all those different things? And they had to get approval to do the flight between those airports.” They also, for what it’s worth, weren’t the same planes. Bigger A350s were lined up for the trans-Atlantic flights, with an A330 provided for the short hop to London.
Then, there was the aforementioned hauling of equipment from place to place. Believe it or not, the Vikings started shipping food over the summer to ensure the players had everything they needed, as well as many comforts of home as possible. That said, they couldn’t export everything.
“Simple things like turning on the TV—last night, basically, you could choose the Ryder Cup or Mission: Impossible 2, unless you’re a soccer nut,” Martin said. “I think there were six different channels that had either a soccer match or a soccer studio show going on. So it’s things like that, nothing super disruptive.”
Which is to say it wasn’t perfect, but close enough.
And the most complicated piece fell into place over the weekend. That would be moving all of the football equipment—pads and bags and sleds and line spacers and all the things you’d need to practice and play over the course of a week. The first truck went over Saturday night, after the team’s walkthrough, to clear customs and ferry across the Irish Sea. A second truck went through the same drill Sunday night after the game was completed.
The Vikings also had plans in place for the possibility that they’d sign someone this week (they had a couple of linemen go down against Pittsburgh). In both London and Dublin, the team booked an overflow hotel, in addition to the team hotel, and Martin had two rooms set aside in each location, with two staffers staying in the primary hotel notified that they might need to relocate. In the case a player was signed, one of the staffers would move to the overflow hotel, into one of the rooms the team had put aside, with the player taking that person’s spot in the team hotel.
That, of course, is presuming the team can get a new player’s ETA cleared (Martin says it can happen within five minutes or take up to three days) in time to travel, practice and play, which is a variable that’s tough to plan for.
“From there, we’d book them a commercial flight into London, transport them to the hotel, and check them in,” Martin said. “And we would then onboard them the same way we would at home, with equipment staff, medical staff and operations staff. So, ideally, they’re on the practice field Wednesday.”
‘We’re the first ones to have done this’
It’s a lot, but for Martin, it’s also been rewarding. Little moments like seeing the offensive linemen go out for pizza on Saturday are reminders of the bonding experience his staff is facilitating. And while he won’t be able to take a deep breath until he’s back in the Twin Cities or do any sightseeing in Europe, he’s proud of the work they’ve done.
Monday, for that matter, was a particularly prideful day for Martin and his staff. Vikings personnel had to have their bags checked by 10 a.m., when the players’ meetings kicked off. Buses left the team hotel for the airport at noon. The Vikings were wheels up for the U.K. at around 2 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time, and checking into their hotel in the countryside outside of London around 4 p.m., with Browns week underway.
“If it continues to go the way it has, when we get home, we can say we’re the first ones to have done this—because we probably won’t be the last,” Martin said. “So it’ll be cool to have that check on your bucket list. And then, the overall attitude—the way we’ve approached this—is a good thing for our team.
“Obviously, we’re not on the field on Sunday, so whatever we can do to make sure they’re ready to go is our motto for any trip. And this one even more so.”
At the very least, that was one win the Vikings scored over the weekend, as well as the league. And it should pave the way for more of these trips in the future.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as How the Vikings Moved Their Entire Operation Across the Pond to Make NFL History.
