Jared Allen didn’t know now-Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski when he arrived to the Minnesota Vikings in 2008 in a trade from the Kansas City Chiefs. But it didn’t take long for him to take notice of the 26-year-old assistant coach.
From 2006-08, Stefanski’s first three years in the NFL, no job was too big, no task was too trivial. In his role as the assistant to then-Vikings head coach Brad Childress, Stefanski coordinated “anything and everything,” as he put it, from where the video department should film practice to travel itineraries to setting up the talent show each year at training camp.