Terence Newman started stoically as he said a public goodbye to his playing career during Monday’s press conference. Rather than a grandiose farewell gathering like the one granted to Chad Greenway a couple years ago, Monday felt like a transition rather than an ending.
Newman insisted he was fine, almost relieved, to be done taking hits from increasingly large men, that coaching had been a growing aspiration of his, and he’d contentedly walk away from the game sans any reconstructive knee surgeries or myriad other bodily ailments that have plagued so many.
But amidst one of his several assurances that retiring and joining the Vikings coaching staff was in his best interest, Newman cracked under the weight of a memorable 15-year NFL career that came to a close just before his 40th birthday.
“It’s tough, but I feel like having experienced so much stuff, met so many people, for me it’s not a hard transition,” said Newman. “Some people get depressed and they have a hard time leaving the game, but I’ve loved this game since the day I played it.”
Then the tears.
And a moment to collect himself.
“But it was my time, you know?”
Newman once told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that he was skeptical about a coaching future. “You remember Latrell Sprewell and P.J. Carlesimo?” he told Brian Murphy last summer. “There might be a story like that but the reverse, where the coach chokes the player.”
Clearly Newman has softened. He’ll be the Vikings nickel/defensive backs coach with a trio of young corners in Mackensie Alexander, Holton Hill and Mike Hughes under his thumb. Head coach Mike Zimmer said he’s already helping him spot tendencies on film and that he hopes Newman can aid in the scheming process.
It’s Newman’s relationship with Zimmer that went a long way toward coaxing the defensive back to stick around for a coaching gig, what Newman is calling a “trial period.” Zimmer and Newman have shared stops in Dallas, Cincinnati and Minnesota with the 2018 season being their 11th together.
“He knows pretty much everything about the scheme,” Zimmer said. “Different than if a new guy came in, he knows all the new things we put in, how we’re calling it and the terms we’re using, so you don’t have to go in there and say, ‘Hey, this is this, so think of it like that.'”
The 39-year-old Newman could have returned to play. His body felt good, he said, and he believed there was room for him on the roster but at the expense of a promising young corner.
So Newman embraced his job change like only a future-thinking soon-to-be coach could, forfeiting his playing salary — no word on his coaching salary — for the sake of the youth movement.
“The money isn’t the issue,” he said. “My deal is that I got a passion for the guys in this building, the guys that play for this team and the coaches. I just wanted to have an opportunity to do something I’ve never done, that’s the leading motivation. When I come in here that’s what motivates me, trying to help out these young guys and win a ring.”
The Super Bowl has eluded Newman, who got as far as he ever had in last year’s playoffs when the Vikings advanced to the NFC Championship Game. Their defense remains the team’s backbone, filled with veterans still in their prime and up-and-comers like Hughes and Hill that Newman can mentor — as he’s done all summer, only as a player.
“We play DB, and it’s one of the hardest positions,” Newman said. “You’re doing something unnatural — going backwards while you have a guy running forward at you. I feel like you must pass on knowledge when you can because the position is hard enough, and I’ve played long enough, been in the system long enough. I feel like I can definitely help in different areas.”
Newman says he might not have many friends outside TCO Performance Center considering the demanding hours that coaching requires. He has a real office now — an upgrade presumably from his old locker. And he’ll have to start getting used to the name “Coach.”
Except, it seems, from Everson Griffen.
“I’ll call him T-New,” Griffen said, “T-Money, T-Baby.”
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