Kevin O’Connell still has the voicemail saved on his phone. He missed the call from former New York Jets coach Rex Ryan in March 2012 and he’s never deleted the message.

It serves as a reminder of the crossroads that went on to shape the rest of his life.

“It’s something that I can still remember listening to,” O’Connell said. “We all have moments in life.  I know a lot of people talk about things like, ‘I remember where I was when this specific thing happened to me.’ I can remember where I was when I heard that.”

The call was a courtesy from Ryan to let O’Connell know he was likely going to be released with the Jets on the verge of trading for polarizing quarterback Tim Tebow. It also doubled as a job offer with Ryan gauging interest in whether O’Connell was ready to stop playing and start coaching.

The thought stuck with O’Connell even if he wasn’t ready to admit it to himself. It burrowed its way deep into his subconscious as he slowly started to warm up to the idea. If enough smart people were telling him he would make a better coach than player, O’Connell figured he should probably start listening.

The transition took some time as O’Connell wasn’t ready to change course right way. He had to process the feelings of anger and resentment about what he never became as a player before he could lean into the feelings of excitement and motivation about what he could become as a coach.

“It was hard to to start thinking about going to work every day in a different way than I had basically my whole life,” O’Connell said. “I think what I’m most proud of is making the decision and being able to take the things that didn’t go the way that I had hoped and use it to create some good.”

It’s pretty clear that Ryan was right about O’Connell all along.

Since being hired by the Vikings in February 2022, O’Connell has established himself among the most respected coaches in the NFL. His most impressive performance to date has come recently as he’s guided the Vikings through the toughest stretch in recent memory over the past couple of months.

As he reflected on his journey, O’Connell acknowledged how important every step of his career, good and bad, has been in shaping him into the person he has become. All of it has helped make him the perfect person for this moment with the Vikings.

‘A leader from Day 1’

As a star athlete at La Costa Canyon High School in Carlsbad, Calif., O’Connell had a way of making everybody feel important. As former La Costa Canyon football coach Darrin Brown so succinctly put it, “Everybody thinks that Kevin is their best friend.”

That’s the first thing former Timberwolves guard Chase Budinger brought up, too, when going down memory lane about his former high school teammate. That fact that O’Connell was the star quarterback on the football team and the starting small forward on the basketball never once went to his head.

“He always had this really good aura,” said Budinger, who was a freshman when O’Connell was a senior. “He was Mr. Positivity. He was always a leader that made us all feel like we were a part of it. It seemed like he worked hard trying to build people up rather than tear people down.”

The way he carried himself followed O’Connell to San Diego State, 45 minutes away from where he grew up. He was a dual threat quarterback who finished his time in college throwing for 7,689 yards and 46 touchdowns, and running for 1,312 yards and 19 touchdowns. He was also a seemingly effortlessly leader who was voted a team captain in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.

“It wasn’t something he grew into,” former San Diego State coach Chuck Long said. “He was a leader from Day 1 and everybody knew it. He had a presence about him to go along with some charisma. Just a genuineness that made his teammates gravitate towards him no matter what he was doing.”

All the talk about leadership is important because it contributed to the New England Patriots selecting O’Connell in the third round of the 2008 NFL Draft. As impressive of a prospect as he was on paper — he stood 6 feet, 5 inches, weighed 225 pounds, and ran the 40-yard dash in 4.61 seconds — his skills as a leader are what set him apart from his peers.

The thought was that O’Connell would develop under the GOAT, Tom Brady. That never came to fruition, and O’Connell was waived the following year in favor of undrafted quarterback Brian Hoyer.

‘He had a mind for it’

With the Patriots coming up on the schedule, former Jets defensive coordinator Mike Pettine called O’Connell into his office.

Who better to help the Jets game plan for the Patriots than a player who had just spent a year in their system?

That’s a big reason the Jets initially made the move to acquire O’Connell via trade after the Patriots cut him and the Detroit Lions claimed him off waivers .

“It was pretty evident early on that he had the mind for it,” Pettine said. “He could look at something and see it in a way other people couldn’t see it.”

There’s a specific anecdote Pettine loves to tell about O’Connell that perfectly illustrates how his mind works in real time. As the Jets prepared for the Patriots, they put together a scouting report designed to make sure they were ready for anything.

The only problem? There were flaws that only O’Connell noticed.

“We have the scout cards, and he looks at them like, ‘Oh no, that’s all wrong,’ ” Pettine said. “He would fix all the scout cards and draw up the way it’s supposed to look. He even drew up a blitz, and we named it ‘K.O.’ after him. We used it and got a sack on Tom Brady.”

The meetings between Pettine and O’Connell soon became a regular occurrence. Not only when the Jets were playing the Patriots.

“I took a liking to studying future opponents,” O’Connell said. “I saw vulnerabilities from my perspective that then they could use their world-class abilities to then attack. As minimal as it may have been at the time, I felt like I had a role in helping our team try to win football games. That was something that I felt very strongly about.”

On the other side of the ball, O’Connell served as a sounding board for rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez, building a friendship that has remained strong more than a decade later. The conversations would span everything from a particular game plan being installed on the field to how life was going off the field.

Just a couple of kids from Southern California trying to make it in the NFL.

“I was there every step of the way with him,” O’Connell said. “I learned a lot about a role that I could play that is helpful and does have a tangible impact.”

After bouncing around the NFL as a player for a little while longer, O’Connell made the difficult decision to retire. Though the competitor in him wanted to keep chasing his dream as a player, O’Connell started to realize that he had a bright future as a coach.

“I had a couple of options,” he said. “I could either be stubborn, get angry, and start to blame others, or I could accept it and decide to transition my passion and my love for the game in a different way and try to keep going.”

‘He’s just a real dude’

Nothing in his career could prepare O’Connell for the speech he gave on July 26. There was no way to effectively sum up how he felt after rookie cornerback Khyree Jackson died in a car accident, so while speaking at the funeral, O’Connell simply shared what was on his heart.

“That’s my first time doing something like that,” O’Connell said. “Just hope I did Khyree justice.”

The authenticity and humility that O’Connell showed in the wake of Jackson’s tragic death was the personification of leadership. He shared his feelings with his players and held space for them to grieve however they needed to in the aftermath.

“He’s just a real dude,” safety Cam Bynum said of O’Connell. “The human side of him and being able to understand people makes us stand behind him as a coach even more.”

That speaks to the culture O’Connell has been working to cultivate since he took over the Vikings. As much pride as he takes in the X’s and O’s and that part of the job, O’Connell has always tried to keep the focus on the people above anything else.

That has remained a constant for O’Connell during his rise as a coach. As he climbed the ladder with the Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers, Washington Commanders and Los Angeles Rams, he gradually learned the type of coach he wanted to be.

“It really is a combination of every aspect of my journey and my experiences as a player and a coach,” O’Connell said. “I want to have an organization in the NFL that players can feel that they have a clear path to becoming the best version of themselves.”

That mentality was a focal point for O’Connell before he got hired by the Vikings. He stressed it during his interview with general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, and has continued to stress it now that he’s the man in charge.

“It’s an accountable demeanor,” Adofo-Mensah said. “It’s always trying to figure out, first and foremost, ‘How do we make sure people matter?’ ”

That question has been a compass for O’Connell over the past couple of months regardless of circumstance. It’s what he asked himself after Jackson’s tragic death. It’s what he asked himself after rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy’s torn meniscus. It’s what he asked himself as the Vikings prepared for Sunday’s season opener against the New York Giants.

Asked what he’s learned about O’Connell watching him navigate the past couple of months, offensive coordinator Wes Phillips might have put it best. He hasn’t learn anything new about him. This is the person he’s always known.

“He’s the man,” Phillips said. “I really can’t say enough about how he handles difficult situations and stressful times. We know what we’re going to get day in and day out. He has a way of saying the right thing to the team and giving the right message to the coaching staff.

“Are people born with that stuff? I think maybe.”

Though it seems as if at least part of that is intrinsic to who O’Connell is at his core, it’s also been shaped by everything he’s gone through in his life.

“Maybe my time as a player didn’t turn into me being a 10-year starting quarterback in the NFL,” O’Connell said. “It certainly gave me a platform to set some new goals and try to become the best version of myself as a coach doing it authentically my way no matter what.”

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