It's no secret that now-ex-Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer didn't exactly see eye-to-eye with star quarterback Kirk Cousins. Who could forget about their infamous sideline incident back in October when the pair got involved in a bit of a shoving match after the Vikings' victory over the Detroit Lions?

Both Cousins and Zimmer were quick to play down the incident, claiming that it was nothing more than a heat-of-the-moment type of reaction, and that they were both actually celebrating the win. As it turns out, however, there could be much more to this that what's on the surface. According to Vikings announcer Paul Allen, he knows for a fact that Zimmer actually wasn't happy at all with how Cousins grabbed him by the shirt after the win (via FanNation):

“Back to like the middle of the season,” Allen said on his KFAN radio show. “Home game and it’s a victory. Yeah, Zim snapped when Cousins pushed him. And looking back at it, the former head coach got that side eye and rage steaming from his nostrils. And he wanted to go. But then he didn’t want to go. Kirk sensed a free shot during the working relationship and he got one in.”

For context, here is the incident in question:

At that time, Zimmer said that there was nothing to it. The Vikings head coach claimed that he was actually glad with the fire Kirk Cousins showed:

“Honestly he's doing exactly what I want him to do. He's being a leader, he's being vocal, he's showing emotion. I've been talking to him about it all year,” said Zimmer back in October, “He came over and said, ‘You like that?' He kind of gave me a shove and I shoved him back. It's all good.”

Cousins echoed his coaches' view as he too downplayed the incident:

“I was just celebrating with it,” Cousins said. “I was fired up.”

It wasn't at all surprising that both Zimmer and Cousins brushed off the spat when it happened. After all, they were in the middle of a campaign, and the last thing the Vikings needed was a full-blown war between coach and quarterback. Now that Zimmer's tenure in Minnesota has ended, however, the truth appears to have surfaced.