Brooks Bollinger, the Vikings new quarterback, makes an impression based on his career accomplishments, not on what he says about himself. As a high school player from Grand Forks, North Dakota, the struggling University of Minnesota football program didn’t pursue him. Wisconsin not only gave him a scholarship, the Badgers made him a four year starter. Not a player with extraordinary physical abilities, Bollinger passed, ran and directed the offense so well the Badgers won 30 games, the most ever for a Badger quarterback.
While he had a great college career from a team standpoint, his personal performance didn’t create a lot of NFL expectations. Drafted sixth by the New York Jets in 2003, Bollinger played in just one game (in 2004) during his first two seasons in the NFL. Last season he started nine games for the Jets.
It comes as a surprise to some people that Bollinger is still in the NFL, joining the Vikings in a trade with the Jets and hoping “to do whatever the organization needs me to do to win football games.” That assignment is to prepare the best he can, probably become the No. 2 quarterback and grab his helmet if starter Brad Johnson can’t play.
In the immediate days after joining the Vikings, Bollinger (not surprisingly) made a maximum effort to learn the Vikings offense. He is a character guy, the type that would audition well for the all-American boy role with Wheaties. Soft spoken and humble, Bollinger didn’t talk much about all the games he helped Wisconsin win and then said, “I think I accounted for some of the losses, too.”
Viking coach Brad Childress recruited Bollinger when he was an assistant at Wisconsin. “I am familiar with him,” Childress said. “I know how he is wired. He is a coach’s son. I talked to guys on the (Jets’) last staff. He’s notorious as a grinder.”