This is Todd Downing’s 20th NFL season. He’s 40 years old.
So, quite literally, the former Eden Prairie High School quarterback has been grinding away for half a lifetime since he entered the league as essentially an airport chauffeur for the family of Vikings owner Red McCombs and others who needed being picked up, dropped off or shuttled about.
Someone else will have to drive Saturday when Downing lands at MSP. Now in his second season with the 2-0 Tennessee Titans, he’s busy coaching the NFL’s highest-scoring tight ends group — a group that could give the 0-2 Vikings and their beat-up defense fits on Sunday at U.