When he answered the phone on Wednesday afternoon, hours after making one of the more shocking decisions of the 2016 season, Norv Turner had just woken up from a lengthy nap.
"Forgive me, I haven't slept in days," Turner told NFL.com. "This is the hardest thing I've done in football."
Turner abruptly stepped down as Vikings offensive coordinator earlier this week, leading to former tight ends coach Pat Shurmur's ascension on a short week and creating more questions than answers. What in the world happened?
In Turner's mind, after some difficult soul-searching, it boiled down to this: "Sometimes, you feel like you might be holding them back," Turner said, "holding them back from things all getting on the same page.