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EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- Minnesota Vikings left tackle Matt Kalil said Monday that he shouldn't have confronted a fan outside TCF Bank Stadium after the team's loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, saying the incident was due to his frustration with how he played. Kalil was penalized three times for 35 yards in the Vikings' 24-21 loss. He left the locker room on his phone without talking to reporters, and as he walked out of the stadium, Kalil responded to a fan's criticism by knocking his hat off his head. Eyewitnesses quickly took to Twitter to talk about the incident, and a video of it was published on Deadspin on Monday morning. "I usually shrug that stuff off," Kalil said. "Fans like to talk and say some things, but it's just something [where] I could have been the bigger man and walked away. It really wasn't that big of a deal. He just caught me when I had a short fuse that day. "It was one of those things when I walked away it was, 'What am I doing? That guy's not really worth my time.' But whatever happened, happened, so I'll obviously learn from that and won't let him get the best of me."  Kalil apologized for not talking to reporters after the game, saying he was on the phone with his father when he left the locker room and walked past a group of fans standing outside the players' exit to the stadium. "I don't think it was that big a deal. I was still on the cellphone with my dad," he said. "So it's not like I'm fighting with a guy and talking to my dad on the phone. Like I said, should've just shrugged it off, and especially in the locker room I'm always great talking to you guys and stuff. It just wasn't my best day." Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said everyone puts a lot into playing each week and everybody is in an emotional state, but that is not an excuse for how Kalil acted. "We appreciate 99.9 percent of the fans; they're great for us and he should have conducted himself in a better manner," Zimmer said. "It's a good lesson for all of us. I know that in the past there have been times when I've been upset with people, too, but they pay money to go watch us play and watch us perform so they have a right to express their opinion. We just have to keep our composure and not let things get out of hand, I think." The fourth overall pick in the 2012 draft, Kalil has struggled in his third season and has hinted in recent weeks that his surgically repaired knee is still affecting him. He played with the injury for much of last season after making the Pro Bowl as a rookie and said last week he's had to learn to trust his knee when he's setting in pass protection. Zimmer gave Kalil a day off Friday to rest what Zimmer called "minor aggravation" with his knee. Asked Monday if pain in his knee is still bothering him, Kalil said it was "off and on."
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