With the Vikings in a must-win game to keep their postseason hopes alive, they turned to Kirk Cousins — their star, and injured, quarterback — to lead their “Skol” chant pregame.
But Cousins, who tore his Achilles in Week 8, added his own twist.
After arriving, he took off his jacket, roared and flexed for the crowd shirtless, while one of his sons did the same in front of him.
Then, Cousins and his son, Cooper, kept clapping their hands above their head to lead the chant, before the Vikings lost to the Packers, 33-10, on “Sunday Night Football.”
The NBC broadcast then cut to Cousins — this time wearing a shirt — on the Vikings sideline multiple times throughout the first half, as backup quarterback Jaren Hall struggled and Minnesota fell behind 23-3.
If anything, Cousins was perhaps referencing his celebrations with teammates last year that defined the Vikings’ postgame celebrations, according to Sports Illustrated.
After a November 2022 victory against the Commanders, Cousins danced on the plane while shirtless and wearing multiple chains, and he said in an interview on the “ManningCast” that everything had started a few weeks prior, when teammates turned the return flight “into a nightclub” following a win against the Saints.
“Before I knew it, I had Christian Darrisaw’s chain around my neck and everyone was taking photos and posting them on social media,” Cousins said at the time.
His fifth season with the Vikings ended with a first-round postseason exit despite a promising regular season, and in his sixth campaign with the team, Cousins tore his Achilles during the Vikings’ victory against the Packers on Oct. 29 — when the 35-year-old, who’d thrown for 2,331 yards, 18 touchdowns and five interceptions in 2023, tried to escape the pocket and scramble in the fourth quarter.
He was tackled, and then after getting up, he hobbled over to the sidelines.
It turned into a devastating, season-altering injury for the Vikings, who were en route to their third consecutive win after dropping four of five games to start the season.
They’ve started three different quarterbacks — Hall, Nick Mullens and Joshua Dobbs — since Cousins’ injury, and Mullens replaced Hall to start the second half Sunday against the Packers.
