Kirk Cousins You Dont Know How It Feels to Be Me

Step into the part of the guy with the tertiary-best completion percentage in NFL history. A guy who every single QB-needy squad should be salivating over correct at present, every bit he marches toward gratuitous agency. O.K., it's more than of a cubicle—about what you'd await for, say, a junior salesperson—but Kirk Cousins has a new workspace at 21300 Redskins Park Drive, and SI pulled upwards a swivel chair to talk about fatherhood and the franchise tag, Trump the Divider and Jesus the Gambler, nerdiness and—ahem—frugality.

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  Interviewer Greg Bishop

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  Subject Kirk Cousins

Nice space here.

I similar having a identify where I can leave stuff, where I can piece of work on my own. Our quarterbacks room is also the offensive staff room, so there would be times when I'd come in afterwards a game, Monday morning time, and the staff was watching pic. I was homeless; I'd bounce effectually, wherever was available. And I could never go out stuff. I'd have all these notes and checklists [scattered about]. I said, "If I could have a infinite where I could go out everything and be organized, that would really assist." The team was kind enough to revamp this space. I told them I might need a door. They said they couldn't practice information technology. So I'm thinking virtually peradventure putting saloon doors on, merely for fun.

Give me the i-minute tour.

I've got a bin over hither of every game plan I've ever had, going back years, from Michigan State even. I've got old folders from the Shanahans [erstwhile Redskins coaches Mike and Kyle]. Playbooks from 2012 and 'thirteen. Notes from going downwardly to run across Jon Gruden in the offseason. Notes from our '15 offseason mini-camp. If I ever coach, I'll want to refer to this stuff. . . . Originally I just had a laptop in here. The video guys were kind enough to put a monitor upward. I got a couple white boards and my wife ordered a agglomeration of stuff off the Internet as a joke. (Cousins shows off a miniature Newton's cradle, like you'd see on an exec's desk in the 1980s, and a calendar of daily Jeff Foxworthy jokes. Today'south entry: Y'all might be a redneck if your rugs and the contents of your freezer are related.) I've got some supplies, pens. . . . I've got my inspirational quote over here. (Handwritten on a piece of pinned-upward white newspaper: The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses, long before I trip the light fantastic nether those lights. —Muhammad Ali.) And so I've got my poster. (He points to a torn-out magazine photo of a white sand beach.) The Cayman Islands—that's a place [my married woman] Julie and I accept vacationed a couple times. I accept no window here, so that'south my window.

You two just had your commencement kid a few weeks ago. Cooper Wesley Cousins.

I gauge I similar the alliteration of Cooper and Cousins.

What was that week like?

Xi days passed from the due date to when the baby actually came, just waiting and waiting. Eventually on a Thursday afternoon I left practice—skipped post-practice meetings—to bulldoze to the birthing center. They told me it could come any minute. Information technology wasn't until 30 hours later, and then I missed an entire twenty-four hour period of piece of work.

When's the terminal fourth dimension that happened?

Oh, I haven't missed a practice since I've been here. That was my first ane. Going into a Monday Night Football game game against the Chiefs that week, I didn't really desire to miss a 24-hour interval. Simply Filly [McCoy, my backup,] prepare his phone in the quarterback coming together room and we got on FaceTime. I was basically there without being there. . . . Julie's contractions were coming every four to five minutes, and they lasted nearly thirty seconds—but outside of that I was able to focus [on football] and Julie was very agreement. She could hear my coaches and [teammates] talking in the background but she said it was fine. When she needed to grab my hand to get through a contraction for xxx seconds, I was there—and I had my iPad next to me, looking at cut-ups, in between. I think our doula thought that was weird. She wanted me a footling more than present. Merely Julie understood.

Lucky timing: Your adieu the next weekend kind of served as a paternity get out.

We played Monday night, got back at like 5 a.thou. from Kansas City, and then had Wednesday through Sunday off. I was able to spend fourth dimension with Julie and the babe, acquire how to change a diaper, hold him, exist helpful.

"On days when I struggle, I'll come home and I'll realize that it'southward not the stop of the world. There are more important things; [Cooper] doesn't love me any less. That perspective will help me be a amend football game actor."

How did the infant modify your perspective?

When I come up home from work, if I just played a really good game and I'one thousand on top of the world, I call back changing a diaper will apprehensive me pretty quickly. On days when I struggle, I'll come home and I'll realize that it's not the end of the earth. There are more than important things; he doesn't love me any less. That perspective volition help me exist a improve football player.

How'south your sleep been then far?

Information technology is what it is. It's tough living on the East Coast, 'cause I love watching sports and these games come on at 8:30, 9 p.m., and my married woman and I try to become to bed around ix. That way, fifty-fifty if I'm getting up at 6:30, I can go a full nine hours of slumber. I need 9 hours. Some guys demand more than or less, but if I get my ix hours I tend to play meliorate.

You lot've been playing six years now, and there are some well-worn themes when people talk about Kirk Cousins. How authentic is that stuff?

I've never been one to just permit anybody see what I'g about, so sometimes there is a misperception. The comments about Oh, he'due south more of a dork or a nerd. . . I don't know if that's fully truthful. But I tin can see why people would say that when they just get a snapshot. If you're effectually me plenty you'd say, There'southward more to that guy. But I'm O.K. with it. Information technology'southward funny. I'm totally cool being self-deprecating.

Perhaps it masks how well you can play, your inner burn?

The "You similar that?" moment [subsequently a comeback win against the Buccaneers in October 2015] caught a lot of people off baby-sit. They were like, Who'due south that guy? I didn't recall I did anything weird. I was just beingness me—the me that maybe I don't show y'all all very much but that has been there all along. My family said: That's the Kirk we know; didn't surprise u.s.a. at all. I promise there are many more moments like that.

— NBC Sports Redskins (@NBCSRedskins) October 25, 2015

Exercise you retrieve walking down the hall, how information technology unfolded?

I retrieve information technology. I remember the satisfaction of that victory and feeling a scrap of vindication. And that's what came out. Afterward, I talked to the media, showered, changed and walked out to my car. My wife met me there and asked, "What did yous say? It's all over the Internet; everybody is talking about it." It took a second for it to register—Oh, yeah—because I didn't even know what she meant. And from there we just watched information technology accident upwardly. We were entering our good day week so we were able to take the time to turn that into an opportunity, raising some coin for International Justice Mission. We sold a bunch of T-shirts that said You lot Like THAT and raised about $40,000.

Two years later. . .

Talk about existence associated with something long afterward. I'll be in the airport and people will say it to me, or when nosotros go to away stadiums. At that place are worse things to have tagged to your proper name, so I'll take information technology.

Some other talking point with y'all is always the franchise tag. Do you dislike talking nigh that?

Everything'due south been said that could possibly be said. (The Redskins offered $53 meg guaranteed this offseason; Cousins declined and is playing on a i-yr, $24 million franchise tender.) It'due south pretty straight forrad, but common sense decision making through the whole process. I call back patience has served me well in this league and I'm just going to go on to take it year by year. That way I have options when the season ends. . . . Each histrion has to consider his ain leverage, his own fiscal situation, what's best for him and his family. I feel a peace almost the mode I have [handled things].

Are y'all really a adventure taker?

Talk near another misperception. I really am not. I'chiliad not a guy who wants to skydive and open up my parachute at the concluding minute. I want to open my parachute right away and know what's coming. People say: Kirk's betting on himself. That's non who I am or what I'm doing. I'one thousand making a decision based on conviction and what I feel and what makes sense. Logic, really. Sure at that place's some chance involved. But whatever cracking man of affairs, whatsoever bang-up person of bear upon, they all took risks. They all failed at times too. I'm O.K. if failure happens. Ultimately, and then much of my contractual conclusion making is predicated on my faith and believing the Lord has a plan for me. I didn't feel peace about signing a long-term bargain.

"I'1000 O.K. if failure happens. Ultimately, so much of my contractual conclusion making is predicated on my faith and believing the Lord has a plan for me. I didn't experience peace almost signing a long-term bargain."

You've described Jesus as a gambler.

What I was trying to say was that when we have to live in a place of total dependence on God, that'due south a healthy matter. Information technology's freeing. When we start to say God, I don't need you, I've got this figured out, that's pride. I recall it'south healthy to wake up every morning and recognize my dependence on God. I'm not putting faith in myself. The bigger the sample size I have—I tin look back now a decade, to high school and college—I just experience like, yous know, shame on me if I tin can't selection up the subtle hints by at present that the Lord's got me. He has a plan for my life and I'm gonna trust that. . . . I broke my ankle my junior yr of high school and I remember telling my dad as I drove home from the hospital, tears in my optics, "This means I won't play college football." And my dad said, "You lot've gotta trust that the Lord volition lead and guide. Whether you play college football or not is in His hands, not yours." When I was offered by Michigan State I realized, Wow, Lord, you lot really are bigger than a broken ankle.

Practise you ever feel whatever vindication that, and so far, this all seems to have paid off?

I'thou always trying to show myself. That volition never change. It exists around the league more than people realize. People question a lot of quarterbacks who've had a lot of success, later merely one bad game. We never feel safe. We're never comfortable. We're always trying to bear witness we belong. I go out every day feeling like I have to give a reason to validate my part on the team.

What's it like to live like that?

Well, it'south not comfy. But if I always want to do anything of worth in my life, I have to get O.K. with being uncomfortable. I don't think there'south anybody who's doing great things that feels condom. That's capitalism. That's the society we alive in. Information technology'due south something that, on the outside looking in, I never realized about this league.

You lot recently read C.Due south. Lewis's "The Trouble of Pain," plus "Poor Charlie's Almanack," past Warren Buffett's lawyer, and "Dust," by Angela Duckworth—all kinds of self help books. Yous've got Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers" on your list and "Gunslinger," about Brett Favre, in your reading pile. . . .

I can't even go to Barnes and Noble and buy a volume myself considering so many people are sending them to me and recommending them. I want to [learn from] people who have done what I do, but at a much better level, for a much longer time. [Exterior of reading,] I've reached out to Kurt Warner, Mark Brunell. . . . It's non like I text them every week, but even 1 conversation has been helpful. Drew Brees and Alex Smith—I had a risk at the Pro Basin to talk to them, enquire questions. How do you do what you do? How practice you play 13, 14, 15 years and stay salubrious? I'll fifty-fifty go find mentors in business concern, people who know what [success] looks like regardless of profession.

Your reading list, the conversations, this cubicle—it all suggests you're an over-preparer. Where does that come from?

I like to have my ducks in a row, my bases covered when I go into a game. I detest feeling like something that took no talent beat me. If I lose because I tin can't run fast plenty or jump high plenty, so be it. I tin can't control that. But the minute it's If you had just watched that prune, just memorized that play, the effect would have been unlike—that just drives me crazy. I cannot take failure as a result of something that took no ability.

What'southward your game prep process like when you sit down down at this desk-bound?

Greg Bishop

This is my checklist here (pointing to his whiteboard). I get-go by going over the scouting reports and talking about the defensive personnel. Then I watch the opponent's moving-picture show on first and second downwards based on our three main offensive personnel groupings. And I watch their defense on start and 2nd downwardly. Every bit the week goes on I watch their defense on third downs, in groupings of two to v yards to go, six to ix, and 10-plus. Subsequently in the week I watch the red-zone defense from the xx to the x, and then from the 10 to the goal line. I make certain I've memorized all the run-game criteria for my rules and checks, plus any new plays that take new reads. I go over any Cover Zero, all-out blitz [situations], any protection issues we take that week. (He holds up an index card covered in barely-legible chicken scratch.) This is my two-infinitesimal carte. I carry this on my wrist then I've got some plays in case the headsets go out or I've gotta call it myself. (He cues upwardly a play on his figurer screen.) And then here we take the hot binder, which shows, all around the NFL: touchdowns, plays of 20 yards or more than, third-and-long conversions, interceptions. . . . I like to watch the entire league, see why guys were throwing interceptions concluding Sunday. Was it tipped assurance? Bad throws? Scrambling, trying to do likewise much?

The QB's notes going into a Calendar week 2 Rams game. Cousins: "I like to draw the plays on paper, and every bit I describe I become through the reads, footwork, 'quick' element and potential audible or protection phone call for each play. I've found it to be the best way for me to experience ready earlier game time."

Give me an example of something you lot see in that folder.

You see a stat like Ben Roethlisberger's five interceptions (against the Jaguars in Calendar week 5) and you go, Wow, what a tough mean solar day. Then you become back and lookout man. Well, this ball was tipped; and that ball the receiver could have helped him more than. . . . You start to realize there's a lot more that goes into an interception. That's why you don't just read the stats. Become back, spotter the film and encounter what took place on every play.

O.Chiliad., ane more well-worn Kirk Cousins theme: Frugal .

I like to bulldoze older cars because I feel like I tin can become a deal. Then I have the 2000 conversion van (the "Gray Ghost" that he told GQ about this offseason), which has been great. A couple years ago I bought an '05 Mercedes sedan that was significantly cheaper than the sticker price when it came out. It had such low mileage! And this by calendar week I bought a 2001 Mercedes G500—a G Wagon. Information technology's pretty archaic, but you'd be shocked how cheap information technology was! The body way is the exact same as it is today, so it doesn't look any older! And but about 50,000 miles!

And you're still living in your in-laws' basement?

Here'due south the bargain: We go down to Atlanta in the offseason because we desire to become out of the [D.C.-area] cold. Until we know where we're going to be long term, yeah, nosotros'll exist living with my in-laws in Atlanta. People think, You live with your in-laws? How do you do that? Well, they're then laid-back that it's just piece of cake.

Basement information technology is. Await at the NFL right now. Are nosotros at a unique moment?

When I starting time came into the league and people talked about how much the NFL has grown—how rapidly, how the revenue is and so potent—someone compared it to Rome. And somewhen Rome savage. And so in that location was an awareness: Let's think ahead about what we tin can practice to ensure that doesn't happen hither. Is it a unique time? I don't know. I call back in that location are issues in whatsoever time period. I don't think this is any dissimilar. The primal is to encounter how we can continue to grow. Because you're either growing or you're dying.

It merely seems like in that location'southward something on every front end: the canticle, thespian safety, President Trump. . . .

Any time y'all're doing good things, having an impact, whatsoever time you're on the forefront of people's minds, there's gonna be controversy. You have to expect it and welcome information technology. It's also an indication that this league has an incredible attain and platform and influence.

Problems that other leagues would envy.

Well said. Well said.

What's your feel been with this anthem stuff?

I'm only standing to learn. Being white, I've said to the team: "I can't pretend to empathise. I am ignorant on this event. I don't know what it's like to bulldoze down the route and be pulled over simply because of the colour of my skin. So why would I outset to act as if I practice?" I've tried to listen and learn, and at the same fourth dimension support my country that I honey and am so grateful for. I have conversations with guys like [left tackle] Trent Williams, simply walking off the field, asking for his perspective.

Patrick Smith/Getty Images

You were invited to a mini players meridian in October, after Trump'southward comments on Colin Kaepernick.

I didn't have a lot to share there. I merely took notes, listened to both sides. And I found that when owners communicated to players, and players communicated to owners, that was really healthy, something that should happen more often. I came away feeling better about our league, nigh our players, near the plan going forrard. Now, I don't think nosotros left the coming together saying, Great, information technology's buttoned up, tie a bow on information technology, we're good to go. That wasn't the betoken. The bespeak of was to walk away proverb we'd put a lot of things out on the table, and they heard u.s.a., and we heard them. There'southward a lot of value in that.

"Existence white, I've said to the team: 'I can't pretend to understand. I am ignorant on this consequence. I don't know what information technology's similar to drive down the road and be pulled over but considering of the colour of my peel. So why would I start to human activity as if I do?'"

It feels like the whole fence has moved away from Kaepernick's initial intention when he knelt.

I guess it'southward unlike to each actor. There'due south no doubt that some players decided to kneel more in response to President Trump's comments than to the issues of police brutality or excessive force. And so, was that a unlike issue? Yous'd accept to talk to the individual player.

Kirk Cousins played golf due west/ President Trump this by weekend. They talked about everything, including LeBron James. https://t.co/WUAup5xuW7 movie.twitter.com/xKybpwB4Iv

— NBC Sports Redskins (@NBCSRedskins) June 16, 2017

Yous played golf with Trump in June.

I got an invite. I thought somebody was pranking me. . . . Await, if it had been any president—far left, far right, middle—I was gonna become. That's the President of the United States. If whatever other former president would dearest to play golf, I'thousand open to it. Let me know. . . . He was—how do y'all say it?—but a normal guy. He was pretty easy to talk to. He was friendly and, frankly, he asked a lot of questions, about the Redskins and my situation. How long take you been at that place? How long are you under contract? . . . . I want to win football games first and foremost. But I likewise want to be aware and educated on problems and but keep an open mind, go on a listening ear. I constantly want to exist learning, growing and ameliorate understanding things. And encounter where that takes us.

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Source: https://www.si.com/longform/big-interview/kirk-cousins-washington-redskins-nfl/index.html

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