While the Dallas Cowboys were getting ready for their season finale, Mike Zimmer might’ve had a little more on his mind than the Washington Commanders.
The team’s defensive coordinator also was busy taking care of a different kind of business – popping the question to his model girlfriend.
In a post last week, Katarina Miketin shared on Instagram that she and the former Minnesota Vikings bench boss kicked off the new year by getting engaged.
“Five years ago they told us we needed to meet … God knew what He was doing. I thank Him for you, my best friend … so, of course … I said YES!” Miketin exclaimed in the post’s caption.
The post features a slideshow of several special moments in the couple’s relationship and concludes with Miketin showing off her new dazzling diamond ring.
She also added more heartfelt words in her in native Croatian.
“I know that I love you because your joy makes me happy,” the translated caption said.
“Because your pleasure satisfies me, because your sadness makes me sad, because your pain hurts me, because I am beautiful because of your beauty.
“For I am good because of your goodness, because I I love because of your love and I know that you love me.”
Zimmer, 68, and Miketin, 42, confirmed their romantic relationship in 2021, the 26-year age difference between them seemingly not an issue.
Miketin boasts 400,000 followers on Instagram and has been featured on the cover of Maxim.
Zimmer is widower after his first wife, Vikki, died unexpectedly of natural causes in 2009 at the age of 50.
He also suffered the loss of his son, Adam, who died in 2022 from complications of chronic ethanol use disorder. Adam had worked several years in the NFL as a positions coach, including under his father in Minnesota.
Zimmer coached the Vikings from 2014-21 and was fired after his eighth season at the helm. He then became a consultant/analyst at Jackson State under then-head coach Deion Sanders and followed the former two-sport star to Colorado the following year, holding the same role.
After Dan Quinn left the Cowboys last off-season to take over the head-coaching job in Washington, Zimmer was hired as the team’s new defensive coordinator, taking over a role he previously held with the team from 2000-06.
The Cowboys lost their season finale to Quinn’s Commanders 23-19. Dallas finished the season with a record of 7-10 and missed the playoffs, while Washington will face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers next Sunday in the wild-card round.