LONDON — You could see the joy on their faces as soon as the game clock expired.
You could hear the relief in their voices as they talked about the escaping with an ugly win.
You could feel the weight lifted off their shoulders as they packed their bags and prepared for a flight back to the Twin Cities.
The unprecedented international swing that took the Vikings through Dublin and London over the past week and a half was finally over.
Asked about the Vikings capping the trip with a 21-17 win over the Cleveland Browns on Sunday at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, head coach Kevin O’Connell joked that he couldn’t think because his brain hurt.
“I’m not sure anybody’s had a trip like this,” O’Connell said. “It’s definitely on the podium for the longest I would believe.”
Not that the Vikings backed down from the challenge. They seemed genuinely excited about being the first team in NFL history to play consecutive international games in different countries.
Maybe the biggest reason O’Connell felt comfortable with the Vikings being the guinea pig for the NFL was because of the people behind the scenes handling the logistics.
The long list includes director of team operations Paul Martin, director of equipment services Mike Parson, vice president of player health and performance Tyler Williams and head performance dietician Ben Hawkins, among a handful of others.
“I could not do my job without a lot of folks that put a lot of work into a trip that had not been done before,” O’Connell said. “To see our team come to life and finish the way they did is a credit to a lot of them.”
That doesn’t mean the lengthy trip was devoid of challenges for the Vikings. After losing to the Steelers in Ireland, they were feeling the pressure as they prepared for the Browns in London.
“A dub was a must,” Justin Jefferson said. “We couldn’t go home on that plane 0-2.”
Though nobody would mistake these millionaires for roughing it in the English countryside, living at the Hanbury Manor in Ware, England, was certainly an abnormal way to prepare for such an important game.
They lived out of suitcases in old rooms on the estate built in the late 1800s. They prepared on a practice field plopped in the middle of a golf course. They hardly had free time to leave the grounds.
Nothing about it was normal for the Vikings. Not that they used it as an excuse.
“We made the best of it,” edge rusher Jonathan Greenard said. “We didn’t let that affect us.”
That was exactly how O’Connell wanted his players to approach it. He kept his messaging consistent, saying that if they looked hard enough for excuses, they would probably find them.
“Why would we take the energy to look,” O’Connell said. “Let’s just focus on what we need to focus on.”
That mindset carried over to the game, where the Vikings found a way to walk away with a win over the Browns. As excited as everybody was in the visitor’s locker room, however, the exhaustion was evident amid the euphoria.
“It seems like we’ve been gone a while,” O’Connell said. “We’re very much excited to get back home and try to start getting healthy, as a lot is still in front of this team.”
It helps that the Vikings have a chance to get healthy over their bye before the schedule gets a lot tougher.
If they are able to string together some solid play out of their bye, the past week and a half that had a potential to turn this season upside down will instead be looked at as something that brought everybody closer together.
Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell leaves the field after a win over the Cleveland Browns in an NFL football game in London, Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025. (Adam Bettcher/AP Content Services for the NFL)
Cleveland Browns quarterback Dillon Gabriel (8) is tackled during the first half of the NFL game between Minnesota Vikings and Cleveland Browns at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in London, Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
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