If you think conditioning 11 football players to be on the same page while running an offensive play is difficult, can you imagine what moving an entire football team from Minneapolis to cities like Chicago, Green Bay and Jacksonville must be like?
Well thanks to the incredibly hard-working people in the Vikings Operations department and at Northwest Airlines, the Vikings are able to travel swiftly and comfortably each time a road game comes up on the schedule.
Our first road trip this season was for the first game of the season, a Monday Night Football contest against the Packers in Green Bay. As is typical for all of our road games, the traveling commences the day prior to the game at Winter Park with TSA screening and then a bus ride to the Minneapolis International Airport. Once at the airport, the buses drive out to the tarmac and the players, coaches, staff and equipment are loaded onto the plane.
Once we arrive in our opponent’s city, we quickly exit the plane and travel via bus to the team hotel. At the hotel, an envelope with our room key and travel itinerary is ready for us to pick up and we begin to settle into our rooms for a good night’s sleep before the game.
After the game, everyone quickly prepares to head back to Minneapolis. We board the buses, go through TSA screening at the airport and then board the plane for our trip back home. The NWA staff is great; they are constantly doing everything possible to ensure that we are well-fed and comfortable during our travels.