The Pittsburgh Steelers announced three candidates they have interviewed for their vacant general manager position this week, and former Minnesota Vikings GM Rick Spielman was one of the names on that list.
Back in February, it was reported that Spielman was being considered for a “high-level front office position” for the Jacksonville Jaguars, but owner Shad Khan pumped the brakes on that plan with newly-hired head coach Doug Pederson taking on many of the roles he initially envisioned for Spielman.
But an opportunity to return as a GM for another NFL team after being fired a little over two months ago by the Vikings would be quite the accomplishment.
We interviewed the following candidates for our General Manager position this week:
• Jerry Reese
• Rick Spielman
• Doug Whaley— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) March 19, 2022
Spielman served in that role in Minnesota for nine years before everything crumbled to dust.
While things ended on good terms with the Vikings organization, it’s hard to say the same thing about Spielman’s relationship with former coach Mike Zimmer. The two sides allegedly hadn’t spoken in months leading up to the double firing.
And it was just in January, when Zimmer’s girlfriend unleashed a verbal tirade on Spielman through social media.
It’s safe to say things got pretty dysfunctional for the Vikings in the last year of the Spielman and Zimmer era. However, the interview with the Steelers proves there are teams out there still interested in Spielman’s knowledge as a front office executive.
He isn’t riding off into the sunset anytime soon.
