Adam, an assistant on Zimmer’s staff, was working remotely as an offensive assistant with the Bengals at the time of his death.
“He loved football so much and he was telling me his career was ruined because he got fired,” Zimmer says. “It tore him up. I told him everybody gets fired in this job, but it was hard on him.”
The two were spending a lot of time together at Zimmer’s ranch in Kentucky that year.
“Every Sunday, that first year until Adam passed, we went and played golf together at Triple Crown Country Club in Union, Kentucky, right by the ranch,” Zimmer says. “He called me a couple days before he passed and said he was coming back to the ranch on Monday. He said, ‘I got one more thing to do.’ He never made it back.”
This time, Zimmer tried to stay busy on the ranch. He bought an excavator and dug a 6-acre lake. He shot some deer, shot some doves. He did some media work for the 33rd Team website. And, of course, he was still getting paid by the Vikings through 2023. He went back to Triple Crown to hit golf balls on the range, but rarely played since Adam was gone.
