I was watching the movie Say Anything the other night and, if you haven’t seen it because it came out in 1989, the long-story-short version is that a girl falls in love with her summer fling while her relationship with her dad is strained by his lies over stealing money from people at a nursing home.
The whole crux of the movie is that throughout the story the father keeps telling his daughter that they can say anything to each other. When it turns out he didn’t tell her about the stolen money, the bond was broken. Good flick … sorry about the spoiler.
Now, I’m not going to tell you that the movie’s premise is like Kirk Cousins’ press conference on Monday because then his 10-minute podium session — his only public comments aside from a radio interview since signing his extension — would have sounded way more dramatic than it was, but the idea of being able to say anything to someone made me think about what Cousins says about his situation in Minnesota.
When Cousins was asked about his reaction to the firings of Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman, in large part set off by the team making the postseason just once in the last four years, he said:
“You just understand, playing in this league for ten years, it’s just kind of become the standard of knowing that every year, there’s change. And every year there’s differences. We’ve had a lot of different coordinators here in the years I’ve been here, and you learn to deal with that. Again, we’ve had some pretty big changes, and so then it just kind of becomes what’s important now and how do we move forward and try to get the best plan together to win. That’s really been the focus ever since we walked away from that last game.”
Cousins left nothing to be interpreted. After four years, the response is: “That’s life in the NFL?”
If he felt he could say anything at that podium, what would he really say about Zimmer’s exit? Would he fist pump like John Cusack after his first kiss with Ione Skye? Would he express frustration over being pegged as the reason people were fired? Would he hold up a boom box playing songs about breaking free? Would he apologize to fans for letting them down?
Cousins, sometimes by his own making and sometimes unfairly, has been bitten by being a shade too honest in the past. A couple of examples: In 2019 he told the world that he apologized to Adam Thielen for missing him on a throw. The ESPN talking head types went batty. He didn’t deserve that reaction for an innocuous comment. But last year he was asked in camp about missing time due to a COVID close contact and he ranted about putting himself in plexiglass. He walked into the outrage over that one.
Since the plexiglass incident (band name!), there have been very few times that he’s seemed comfortable. The once-analytical Cousins didn’t want to provide much insight into what was going on with the offense or anything else in 2021. Early last year he rejected compliments — even from Zimmer — about his swagger and connection with teammates. Later he downplayed the notion that his film sessions with Zimmer had been a difference maker. Zimmer told us that he told Cousins to be aggressive. Cousins more or less said “meh.”
It was difficult to understand what was going on. It remains difficult to understand what is going on.
This offseason the Vikings reportedly took trade offers on Cousins and when no deals came to fruition, he remained. His answer about his contract extension was shorter than the first scene of Say Anything.
“I want to be a Minnesota Viking,” the Vikings’ quarterback said. “I wanted to help create some cap space so that we could put together the roster that you do feel really good about. I think it was just trying to always find win-wins, and I think it was a way to create a win-win. Hopefully that leads to a lot of wins this fall.”
In response to a question about whether he paid attention to offseason quarterback movement, Cousins said that he wants to “retire a Viking.” He added that he has to “earn the right to do that.”
How do you earn the right to do that?
“You earn it every day,” he said. “It’s coming in now in OTAs and picking up the system quickly. Learning the things we’re taught today quickly so that you can build the next brick. Just keep stacking them up and be consistent so that year after year, you’re doing the things that it takes to be successful.”
Huh.
What would he say to someone he could say anything to about wanting to retire a Viking? That he’s already earned it? That it’s killing him that he doesn’t get credit for his play because the team has struggled? That he wants more than anything on this stupid rock spinning through space to take this franchise to the promised land? That he finally has a coach who will support him, he can prove to everyone that this year is The Year Of The Kirk?
Hard to say.
Reporters peppered him with questions about new head coach Kevin O’Connell, who seems like he was built in a lab to coach Cousins. But the Vikings’ QB wouldn’t give the “KO+KC 4EVER” quote they were looking for.
“Whether it’s the head coach, quarterback coach, assistant quarterbacks coach, quality control, you just want to be around great football minds,” Cousins said. “I’ve always been fortunate in my 10 years in the league, I’ve been around some really great football minds and I think our current staff is a continuation of that for me and I continue to be fortunate to have great coaches around me and around our team to help us.”
Let’s be clear: Cousins isn’t obligated to say anything to the public. He doesn’t have to have a heart-to-heart with anybody. It isn’t a criticism to wonder aloud how he feels about this whole thing but everybody went into Monday’s press conference wondering how he felt about this whole thing and we aren’t any closer to knowing.
But it does add onto the pile of mysteries about this offseason. Throw “how does Cousins feel about the situation?” right beside, “what is a competitive rebuild?” and “who’s calling the shots?”
Like when Cusack got dumped and he was standing in the rain on a pay phone, he just wanted to understand what was going on. As the offseason settled down, it felt like the answer was right there all along: The Vikings’ ownership saw the team as being good enough to compete with better culture and better coaching. Does Cousins feel the same way?
He didn’t say anything, so we will carry on waiting for the turning point in the plot.
