In a new article for The Players’ Tribune, Case Keenum writes that in high school, he and his buddies always wanted each season to last forever. The idea that you and your best friends could just play on the same team forever — with cheerleaders, letter jackets, snacks and endless school pride — was a dream. Keenum writes that you could argue that he came to the NFL more prepared than anyone because he has spent his entire life “proving it.” He’s been on the fringes of the game he loves for a long time, and though there are downsides — less job security, smaller paycheck — you learn to put your head down, you learn how to block out the noise, how to really call plays and how to cherish every opportunity. Keenum says it was hard to lose his first game as Vikings QB against Pittsburgh, but then he went out against the Bucs and played “maybe the best football game of my life.” He says that night he “earned his first win as a Viking” and during the postgame speech in the locker room, Coach Zimmer turned and gave out the game ball — which is not something he does. Keenum says it was then that the Vikings became his team. “I told them that I was gonna fight for them every day — and I did not lie. I’m telling you: The camaraderie that I felt in that locker room on that afternoon … I’m not sure I can even explain it,” Keenum writes. After all these years, Keenum says, he can finally say, “that I’m on the exact right team … at the exact right time.”
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