AP file photo. Vikings general manager, Mike Lynn, smiles during the press conference concerning his team's acquisition of Hershel Walker from the Dallas Cowboys. It writes the final chapter in the curious tale of an ambitious executive, a paranoid owner, their dubious deal making and the estrangement that continues to haunt the team.
To Vikings fans of a certain age, Lynn is the dupe responsible for one of the most lopsided trades in sports history. But Lynn was no naif. He was a bare-knuckled negotiator who played hardball with players, politicians and power brokers. The college dropout hobnobbed with Elvis and managed movie theaters before becoming one of the most influential bosses in the NFL.
Early in his tenure as general manager, Lynn negotiated a controversial contract with the Vikings that granted him 10 percent of luxury suite revenue for every event at the Metrodome, starting in , an agreement that still compensates him 22 years after he resigned from the club. The legislation Gov. Until they move out of the Metrodome, however, the Vikings are unable to seize revenue Lynn continues to draw despite not working for the team since The deal was a bone that original Vikings owner Max Winter tossed Lynn in to reward his protege for helping deliver the publicly funded Metrodome under budget and, possibly, to protect his flank from a ruthless subordinate.
In August , Lynn, then 38, wrote Winter a letter asking for a job with the Vikings. Winter trusted Lynn enough to name him executor of his will. Our relationship was a complex relationship.
It really was like a father-and-son relationship. We had our good times, and we had our bad times. By , it was all bad. Lynn and his mentor were feuding, and a palace coup was roiling the front office. Lynn, who ran football operations after being promoted to president in , teamed with the heirs of Vikings founders Bill Boyer and H.
