![Mark Wilf and Zygi Wilf on the sidelines for pregame warm ups. ] CARLOS GONZALEZ • cgonzalez@startribune.com – East Rutherford, NJ – October 2,](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/PWK5K22JL72MKEQGDPDWISGVLA.jpg?fit=crop&crop=faces&w=550&&auto=format)
Speaking to reporters for the first time since the Vikings gave three-year contract extensions to general manager Rick Spielman and coach Mike Zimmer at the beginning of training camp, co-owner Mark Wilf cited the pair's "body of work" as a chief reason ownership chose to extend their contracts for the third time since 2014.
The Vikings are 57-38-1 since Spielman led the search to hire Zimmer in 2014, posting the NFL's seventh-best win percentage (. 598) in that time. Mike Tice, Brad Childress and Leslie Frazier combined for a 69-74-1 mark (19th-best in the league with a .483 win percentage) during the Wilfs' first nine seasons of ownership.
Minnesota won two division titles with Childress and claimed a wild-card berth with Frazier, going 1-3 in the playoffs under both men. The Zimmer/Spielman pairing has also produced two division titles and a wild-card berth, to go with a 2-3 playoff record.
The Vikings haven't won fewer than seven games under Zimmer and have posted a losing record only once, after the final four years under Childress and Frazier produced seasons of six, three and five wins (along with a 10-win season in 2012).
While playoff success factored into the decision, Wilf said, "I'm not going to get into a litmus test: 'If you win this game, then that happens.' It's a body of work, it's a team composite of how we've done as a whole.
"If you look over the Coach Zimmer years and Rick Spielman years, there's been a definite uptick in terms of continued success, continued knocking on the door. And I think players around the league and coaches around the league recognize that, and that's kind of how we go about it."
With Zimmer and Spielman headed into contract years in 2020 and rumors swirling about the coach's future in the run-up to the team's wild-card playoff game in New Orleans, Wilf issued a statement two days before the game, saying the team had "every intent" of keeping the coach and GM together for the foreseeable future.
Zimmer said in July that negotiations on a new deal between new chief operating officer Andrew Miller and Zimmer's agent Marvin Demoff took longer than he expected.
Wilf pointed to the coronavirus outbreak, and the resulting economic downturn, as reasons for the delay in getting contracts done, but said "there was never any question in our mind" about doing the deals.
"We're very confident in our football organization, even though we had the challenges we've all had [with COVID-19]. We're no different as a club and as a business," Wilf said. "We got the job done on that front, and we're very excited about the future of the Vikings."
The Wilfs head into their 16th season as Vikings owners this fall; the team has reached the NFC Championship Game twice in that time, but enters its 60th season still looking for its first Super Bowl trip since after the 1976 season.
"You have to balance the fact that you want to have stability in an organization, you want to make sure that the systems are in place, the comfort level is in place, but everybody knows you're only judged by your wins and losses," Wilf said. "That's a fine line we judge every day, like I said. We took a look in this offseason, and I said early on in the offseason, we feel really good about the football organization we have in place, that they can get the job done. Right now that's where we're at.
"Again, as ownership you balance those things, but to be knee-jerk and to be too impulsive — our goal is to get to the playoffs, achieve sustained success and keep knocking at the door, and eventually that door will come down. I think we've proven over these past few years that our football success has improved, but again, we know what our ultimate goal is. But you can't get to that goal unless you're consistently strong, consistently in the playoffs, consistently winning divisions, and those are our goals to leap off and eventually get to the championship."
Wilf said U.S. Bank Stadium was offered to the Secretary of State's office as a polling place for the 2020 election, but locations had already been determined by that point.
After a summer of unrest in Minneapolis over George Floyd's killing in police custody and in Wisconsin over Jacob Blake's shooting by police, Wilf said he was unsure if any Vikings players would kneel during the national anthem on Sunday. But he added, "We've been consistent in supporting our players' right to peacefully bring awareness to issues that are important to them." He also pointed to the work the team's social justice committee has done over the past three years.
"This is not something that just happened given the horrible events of the past few months," he said. "This is something we've been working with for many, many years, and we are going to continue to do."
