As the Vikings’ 2025 season gets messy, the starting quarterback’s private position coach has gotten a mop and bucket. But not for anything that happened between the white lines.
Greg Holcomb has apologized for attacking Hall of Fame receiver Cris Carter in response to a remark Carter made after J.J. McCarthy’s most recent performance.
It started when Carter responded on Twitter to praise of McCarthy’s “clutch gene” after throwing a touchdown pass with less than a minute to play against the Bears by asking a simple question: “Did you watch the first 59 minutes?” (Carter added a thumb’s down emoji.)
Holcomb responded to Carter with two words: “F’ckn clown.”
The tweet was later deleted, but the damage had been done. Holcomb has now tried to undo it.
“I want to offer my sincere apology for my recent remark directed toward Mr. Carter,” Holcomb said, “in which I referred to him as a ‘F’king clown’ in response to his comments about the Vikings quarterback play. While I will always stand up for someone I love like my own son, my choice of words was completely unacceptable.”
Here’s the rest of the mea culpa, which consists of three more paragraphs that basically restated the same message.
Regardless of Holcomb’s knee-jerk reaction in response to the criticism of McCarthy, Carter’s point was valid. It’s not nearly enough to figure things out in the closing minutes. If McCarthy had been more accurate throughout the game (several drops of accurate throws didn’t help), the Vikings wouldn’t have needed to drive down the field for a late go-ahead touchdown.
And they wouldn’t have had to make a tackle on a kick return and otherwise prevent the Bears from getting in position for a walk-offer game-winning field goal.
The overriding question is whether McCarthy is, or will be, good enough to become the franchise quarterback the Vikings drafted him to be. He remains a work in progress. And Holcomb would be wise to refrain for doing or saying anything that will distract from the overriding goal of making McCarthy into the long-term answer that the Vikings desperately need.
