Vikings coach: Berrian called Kriesel to apologize for his remarks
Vikings coach Leslie Frazier said during his Monday news conference that wide receiver Bernard Berrian called Rep. John Kriesel, R-Cottage Grove, to apologize. Berrian and Kriesel got in a Twitter spat on Sunday over whether Berrian was open during yesterday's loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
"Anytime u wanna watch the film with me. Not just one game but all of them," Berrian wrote to Kriesel. "and if not sit down n shut up!!" Berrian wrote in another tweet.
Kriesel is a Vikings fan and co-author to a bill that would provide public financing for a new Vikings Stadium. Frazier said he expects Berrian to "handle things the right way."
Here's the q and a from Frazier's news conference that focused on Berrian:
Q: Bernard Berrian came out on Twitter last night and got into some sparring matches with fans and implied that he hadn't gotten the ball as much as he wants in four years. Have you talked to him about that? Do you discourage forms of communication like that via social media?
A: Yeah, I have talked to Bernard and we do, as a matter of fact, Bob (Hagan) and some of our PR people actually talk with our team prior to at least when we come to training camp just about social media and what our relationship should be with social media. It's something that we've talked about, something we'll continue to deal with and talk about and Bernard kind of knows where we stand on that issue and we'll move on from there.
Q: One of the things that Bernard sent to the state lawmaker was telling him to "sit down and shut up." He happens to be the co-sponsor of the stadium bill, your reaction to that?
A: I do know that Bernard called to apologize for the exchange and that was encouraging. We want to make sure that our focus is on football and trying to win football games. I think going forward he'll handle things the right way.
Q: Do you worry that an 0-4 start will affect the momentum for a stadium?
A: I would hope not. We need a stadium, there's no doubt about that. There's no question about it. I hope that our fans and constituents across the state understand the importance of it. We're going to do all we can, we are doing all we can to get our season turned around. Whether we are 15 and whatever or 0-4 at this point, hopefully it doesn't interfere with the fact that we need a new stadium.
You can read Frazier's full news conference here.
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