A reporter referenced Mike Zimmer's "blunt personality" during the news conference that introduced him as the new Vikings coach.

"Who said I'm blunt?" Zimmer interrupted. "No. ... I might be direct. I'm sometimes nonsense -- as you can tell now."

Zimmer smiled. Some in the audience chuckled.

Zimmer's public image comes from, in part, the show "Hard Knocks," where an HBO crew followed the Cincinnati Bengals during training camp as recently as last season.

"Let me first say about 'Hard Knocks,' the people that do that show are extremely, extremely professional," Zimmer said. "But they can kind of portray you any way they want to. Obviously on the field, I'm going to be a fiery kind of guy when I feel I need to."

Zimmer's son, Adam Zimmer, said his father can be both fierce and friendly.

"He can be (fiery) at times when he needs to be, but most of the time he's a normal guy and just wants to do the best he can and win," said Adam, who is expected to join the Vikings' coaching staff.

Mike Zimmer preferred to cast himself as "honest" and "sincere."

"And honestly, I coach guys differently," he said. "I'm going to be passionate on the field because that's who I am. That's why they hired me is to be passionate and to be an expert in my field and so those are things that I plan on doing."

Could there be fireworks if general manager Rick Spielman and Zimmer disagree about personnel?

"I can get mad at people," Zimmer said.


"I'm sure he can get mad at people. But we understand that both of our butts are responsible for each other, so the first time we say the heck with you and we go in the other room and we don't come back out, it's over. ... I think I'm a fairly smart guy and I know he is a smart guy, so I think we are going to try to be smarter than that."