MINNEAPOLIS -- Sometime in the middle of his first season as the Minnesota Vikings' head coach, when he was leading a team that had a suspended running back, a rookie quarterback and a defense in transition, Mike Zimmer was asked for his opinion on a design detail at the team's new stadium.
"They came in and asked me what color [of] wood I wanted in the locker room or something," Zimmer said.
Did the coach, who does little to mask his disdain for non-football activities during the season, have an opinion? "Well, it was during the season, so I was in a hurry," he said.
Zimmer said last week he hasn't visited U.S. Bank Stadium since a trip to observe its progress last summer. Soon enough, though, the only coach to lead a team to a division title in a temporary stadium will settle into the Vikings' permanent residence: a $1.1 billion indoor venue on the site of the old Metrodome that's slated to open this fall.
The coach's only request is that it be loud, and the new facility should fit that profile. Beyond that, U.S. Bank Stadium's biggest effect on the Vikings might lie in what it can do for Teddy Bridgewater.
Bridgewater has completed 70.6 percent of his passes in five career indoor games, throwing for 1,290 yards and posting a passer rating of 95.1. In three indoor games last season, he had a 101.6 passer rating and threw for 825 yards and three touchdowns against one interception. In 24 games outdoors, he completed 63.6 percent of his passes, with a passer rating of 85.2. With game-time temperatures of 20 degrees or below, he has never thrown for more than 209 yards.
From here on out, he'll play at least nine indoor games each year he's the Vikings' starting quarterback, and there's optimism within the organization about what he can do at the new stadium.
"Now we're in a dome, so we're going to have pretty ideal throwing conditions every day," Zimmer said last week.
The stadium is slated for completion at the end of July, and Zimmer said he doesn't plan to have the Vikings do much at their new home before the start of the preseason, beyond a few trips for the team's specialists. "We've been talking about maybe doing a fan appreciation thing or something in there," Zimmer said. "We'll figure out enough when we get to the preseason games."
Counting playoffs, the Vikings won 11 of their 17 games at TCF Bank Stadium in two years there; Zimmer's vow to make the best of the temporary home came to fruition. The coach seemed to embrace the cold weather as part of the Vikings' home-field advantage, talking in November about the importance of a tough team and a commanding running game "any time you have a North in your division -- NFC North or AFC North." But with the Vikings back inside, the chance for Bridgewater to open things up could provide a welcome element, too.