07-22-2018, 02:22 PM
Great, in-depth and personal look at The Vikings new QB...
In much of the country, Cousins is a talking point. His name is attached to contract figures punctuated by exclamation points —$84 million over three years! The first fully guaranteed contract for an NFL quarterback! — and followed by a question mark — Is he worth it?
Here in Cousins’ bucolic west Michigan hometown, he is just Kirk, the middle of a pastor’s three kids, the once-scrawny quarterback who earned straight A’s at Holland Christian High School and split his time between sports and Living Hope, the school’s competitive show choir.
He opens the camp by detailing for roughly two dozen coaches how his arrival in Minnesota was the product of answered prayer, before turning things over to his father Don. The next morning, after the group shares laughs and trades jabs over the dodgeball clip, Cousins’ older brother Kyle gets the last speaking spot for morning devotionals, sharing what he’s learned after quitting a job with the Orlando Magic, studying in Jerusalem and sorting out what he should be doing with his life.
Kirk Cousins’ name is on the camp, but he blends in as often as not with the crowd, dispensing high-fives and life advice to middle schoolers, putting his arm around a teary-eyed camper and leaning forward to the edge of Smith Stadium’s metal bleachers as he listens intently to what his father and brother have to say.
It becomes clear why Cousins seems so unfazed by the expectations attached to his mammoth contract. He understands, with bracing clarity, what’s being asked of him, and how directly his perception in Minnesota will be tied to his production. But the contract, the pressure — all of it — is filtered through a world view that was formed here, in the midst of friends and family who share his Christian beliefs. Even when Cousins is the center of attention, his status is not the North Star.
“There’s a dynamic where, because [his closest friends] knew Kirk before he was in the NFL, that’s how they treat him,” Kyle Cousins said. “It’s a safe place where Kirk can come back and just be himself. They give him a hard time, and we mess around; I don’t think we hold him to any different standard than we hold ourselves.”
http://www.startribune.com/vikings-kirk-...488283381/
In much of the country, Cousins is a talking point. His name is attached to contract figures punctuated by exclamation points —$84 million over three years! The first fully guaranteed contract for an NFL quarterback! — and followed by a question mark — Is he worth it?
Here in Cousins’ bucolic west Michigan hometown, he is just Kirk, the middle of a pastor’s three kids, the once-scrawny quarterback who earned straight A’s at Holland Christian High School and split his time between sports and Living Hope, the school’s competitive show choir.
He opens the camp by detailing for roughly two dozen coaches how his arrival in Minnesota was the product of answered prayer, before turning things over to his father Don. The next morning, after the group shares laughs and trades jabs over the dodgeball clip, Cousins’ older brother Kyle gets the last speaking spot for morning devotionals, sharing what he’s learned after quitting a job with the Orlando Magic, studying in Jerusalem and sorting out what he should be doing with his life.
Kirk Cousins’ name is on the camp, but he blends in as often as not with the crowd, dispensing high-fives and life advice to middle schoolers, putting his arm around a teary-eyed camper and leaning forward to the edge of Smith Stadium’s metal bleachers as he listens intently to what his father and brother have to say.
It becomes clear why Cousins seems so unfazed by the expectations attached to his mammoth contract. He understands, with bracing clarity, what’s being asked of him, and how directly his perception in Minnesota will be tied to his production. But the contract, the pressure — all of it — is filtered through a world view that was formed here, in the midst of friends and family who share his Christian beliefs. Even when Cousins is the center of attention, his status is not the North Star.
“There’s a dynamic where, because [his closest friends] knew Kirk before he was in the NFL, that’s how they treat him,” Kyle Cousins said. “It’s a safe place where Kirk can come back and just be himself. They give him a hard time, and we mess around; I don’t think we hold him to any different standard than we hold ourselves.”
http://www.startribune.com/vikings-kirk-...488283381/
