NFL Analyst Reignites Beef with Kirk Cousins
Kirk Cousins leads the NFL in touchdowns through Week 4, and one might consider that a commendable stat.
But it isn’t without criticism from some aimed at Cousins’ general habits.
NFL Analyst Reignites Beef with Kirk Cousins
A divisive creature, Cousins signed with the Vikings in 2018 for megabucks, and ever since, folks have debated his worth and, at times, whether he’s a franchise quarterback at all. Too, some even nitpick everything about his life, bleeding into this week regarding his practice habits.
Allen Iverson, of course, would be appalled that we’re talkin’ about practice, but that’s where we’re at in Year No. 6 of Cousins in purple.
Pro Football Talk‘s Mike Florio led the charge — again — chiding Cousins this week, but this time the question raised was quite bizarre. To set the table, Cousins spontaneously attended a Minnesota Twins playoff game this week with his family. He dressed in sunglasses to perhaps remain incognito, which didn’t really work.
Most felt Cousins’ appearance at the Twins game was authentic, family-oriented, and cool.
But Florio’s take was different. On PFT‘s website, he questioned whether Cousins attending the game with family was the mark of a player who didn’t want to be great.
“Do you want to be great? Do you? If so, what are you willing to do to be great? What are you willing to sacrifice to be great? Are you willing to work every single day to be great? Because others who aspire to be great are doing exactly that,” Florio questioned Cousins’ commitment to his career.
“More specifically, are you willing to pass on going to a baseball game five days before facing Patrick Mahomes in a game that will result in your team being either 1-4 or 2-3? Cousins has every right to take the day off. Do you think Mahomes did? Do you think any of the great ones do?” he added.
Most NFLers have Tuesdays off, but quarterbacks are often at team facilities anyway. Not Cousins, though, as he declared on Netflix’s Quarterback series that Tuesday is the one day per week his wife has Kirk all to the family.
Florio added, “Again, Cousins has the right to take any and every Tuesday off that he wants. But as we search for reasons why there’s a ceiling over how much he can accomplish professionally, let’s not ignore a fairly important factor that is staring us right in the face.”
The practice questions from Florio about Cousins aren’t new, either. Last weekend, after Cousins threw a pick-six against the Panthers, Florio tweeted, “There’s no smoking gun that would ever prove it, but if a quarterback refuses to work on Tuesdays, he quite possibly misses the opportunity to, for example, see something on film that would keep him from throwing a 100-yard pick six on the first drive of the game.”
Nine months ago, Florio joined KFAN’s Paul Allen after the Vikings lost to the New York Giants in the playoffs and voiced displeasure about Cousins’ overall performance, “Joe Burrow is the anti-Kirk Cousins. Joe Burrow is the guy who, like Kirk, will have a great season. But when the lights get bright, you’ve got one game, and your whole season is riding on it — do you crumble, or do you rise? Joe Burrow rises, Kirk crumbles.”
Burrow’s Bengals are staring a 1-3 record in the face this season, just like the Vikings. Perhaps Burrow should practice more.
“Kirk doesn’t have it. You can take your rose-colored glasses and shove them up your butt. Kirk doesn’t have it,” Florio concluded in January about Cousins and the Vikings postseason loss.
Cousins has oodles, if not countless, criticisms levied against him, but attending a baseball game with his wife and sons is new.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sal Spice. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band).
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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