Kirk Cousins left FedExField, a dramatic 20–17 win over the Commanders in tow, with a section of fans chanting the line—“You Like That?!”—he made famous playing in D.C. On his way out, he made a point of seeking out punter Tress Way, one of three former Washington teammates of his left on that roster, as well as former teammate and current Washington assistant Ryan Kerrigan, strength coach Chad Englehart and dietician Jake Sankal.
Then he retreated through the tunnel back to the Vikings’ locker room. He’d get his moments of exultation there, too. His teammates repeated the “You Like That” chant for him, and video of a shirtless Cousins wearing (I think) someone else’s bling on the team plane wound up going viral. Minnesota is now 7–1, so it’s not difficult to comprehend the reason for his excitement.
But there was one thing that was missing, to hear Cousins tell the story. That would be any hint of anger toward the place, or edge sharpened off how they let him go in 2018, or satisfaction in throwing it back in anyone’s face. A revenge game, this was not. Or at least Cousins swears it wasn’t.
“Mike Shanahan drafted me, and at the time, it felt like a dead end going there, when they’d drafted a quarterback second overall,” Cousins said, via phone from FedExField. “I remember Kyle Shanahan telling me the day after I was drafted, ‘Our goal is to have you play well in preseason, and then we'll trade you.’ It felt like a dead end going there. Then to look back and realize that I probably wouldn't be where I am, talking to you, if I hadn't have gone there?
“To get coached by Mike and Kyle and Matt [LaFleur] and Sean [McVay] and Mike McDaniel and Jay Gruden, and to play with Jordan Reed and Pierre Garçon, DeSean Jackson, Vernon Davis, Brandon Scherff, all these guys, I’m just so grateful that I got to go there and grow with that system, play with those players. Very, fortunate to end up there. A lot of careers can be ruined just simply by where you end up in the draft and who you’re coached by and the players you have around you. It was the opposite for me.”
So maybe it fitting that Cousins’s first visit back since leaving for the Vikings in 2018 came with another guy who coached him there, Kevin O’Connell, in charge and a roster full of vets like the ones he played with in Washington.
Together, after erasing a 17–7 deficit in the fourth quarter, the one thing everyone could agree on was that the quarterback got his happy homecoming. Whether that was about looking ahead, or looking back, is still up for some debate. What’s not is how impressive the Vikings have been through eight games.
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