Ex-NFL QB Kellen Mond roasts former head coach: 'Leadership is an atmosphere you create'

Former NFL quarterback Kellen Mond is reflecting on his brief stint in Minnesota—and the lesson he says it taught him about leadership inside an NFL building.

Mond, now 26, shared a candid LinkedIn post revisiting his entry into the league after being selected by the Minnesota Vikings in the third round of the 2021 NFL Draft. According to Mond, his arrival came amid long-simmering tension between then-head coach Mike Zimmer and general manager Rick Spielman, particularly over the team’s direction at quarterback.

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“When I was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings, my head coach walked out of the draft room,” Mond wrote. “We never spoke. Not once.”

Mond explained that the issue wasn’t personal, but structural. The front office had committed to veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins, while Zimmer reportedly disagreed with that decision. Cousins signed a fully guaranteed three-year, $84 million deal in 2018, and the relationship between the organization’s top decision-makers deteriorated from there.

Years later, when the Vikings looked to add a developmental quarterback behind Cousins, Mond said the same divide resurfaced. “When the GM and offensive coordinator wanted to draft me, the head coach was against it… again,” he wrote. “I got the call. He walked out.”

Mond said the fractured dynamic was evident throughout his time with the team. “While I played for the Vikings, I never saw the general manager and head coach speak,” he wrote. “Imagine the two most important people in any organization never talking. What happens to that business? It crumbles.”

The Vikings finished the 2021 season 8–9, missing the playoffs. The day after the season finale, Mond recalled being told that both Zimmer and Spielman had been fired. He noted that Spielman addressed the team to thank players and staff, while Zimmer did not appear.

Zimmer later told the Minneapolis Star Tribune, “They got me fired,” when asked why he didn’t speak to the team on his way out.

“That response told me everything I needed to know,” Mond wrote.

Now pursuing work as an artist and photographer, Mond framed the experience as a broader takeaway about leadership in the NFL and beyond. “Every time you show up to work, you control the energy in the building,” he wrote. “The way you act. The way you speak. Your body language.”

Mond closed with the line that has since gained traction online: “Leadership is an atmosphere you create, not a title you hold.”

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Zimmer later served as defensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys before exiting the NFL, while Spielman has since taken a front-office role with the New York Jets. Mond’s NFL journey continued briefly with Cleveland before he landed in the United Football League with the San Antonio Brahmas in 2024.