Kirk Cousins is the quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings. He is unvaccinated, and the team organization is trying to make it easier for Cousins to stay unvaccinated, because he’s one of those people who thinks staying unvaccinated is a matter of personal freedom and personal choice, rather than a ghastly, irresponsible threat to public safety. Cousins was just placed in another round of Covid-19 exposure protocols and he blamed the size of the room for his exposure. He still hasn’t tested positive for Covid, but this latest round of league protocols has not changed his mind about vaccinations.
A league source confirmed to ESPN that the size of Minnesota’s quarterback room did factor into Cousins being deemed a close contact. The quarterback said his position group is moving to a larger meeting room to avoid this issue in the future.
“As I said to Coach [Mike] Zimmer last night, I said, ‘We can meet in the indoor, we can meet outside,'” Cousins said. “And I said, ‘If it means meeting outside under a goalpost in January, if that’s what it takes to get to the playoffs and be in playoff games and win playoff games, then that’s where we’re going to meet.’ We’re going to avoid this close-contact thing with everything we possibly can do. I was not aware of the meeting room size being an issue. Otherwise, I would have spoken up and said, ‘We obviously can’t meet here.'”
Cousins called his vaccination decision “a very private health matter” and would not disclose whether the situation he found himself in this week would persuade him to receive the vaccine to prevent this issue from popping up during the season. The quarterback repeatedly referred to the need for following the NFL-NFLPA’s protocols as the best measure of protection against contracting the virus or being deemed a close contact.
“I do believe that as a leader of the team, it’s very important to follow the protocols to avoid this close contact — because that is what it’s going to come down to,” Cousins said. “Did you have a close contact? So I’m going to be vigilant about avoiding a close contact. I’ve even thought about, should I just set up literally Plexiglas around where I sit, so this could never happen again? I’ve thought about it, because I’m going to do whatever it takes. We’re going to avoid this close-contact thing, and I look forward to making sure I’m playing for every game this year.”
“I’ve even thought about, should I just set up literally Plexiglas around where I sit…” Or you could just get the free, safe, effective g–damn vaccine. He would still likely be exposed and end up in some Covid-protocol situations even if he was fully vaccinated, but at least he would protect himself, protect the people around him and actually role-model responsible behavior. Apparently, the Minnesota Vikings have the lowest vaccination rate in the NFL, with only 64.5% of the players fully vaccinated. Um… when is the NFL going to mandate vaccines for players? Because that needs to happen. I understand that the NFL would probably have to work with the NFL players’ union (the NFLPA) on that, but realistically, the union should be leading the charge on a vaccine mandate.
Kirk Cousins, who refuses to get vaccinated, says he’s willing to sit inside a plexiglass structure at work to avoid getting infected with Covid pic.twitter.com/ywZlo4SaXH
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 6, 2021
Photos courtesy of Getty.
These bloody anti-vaxxers — let them get sick, and then not offer them health care when they get it because of their stupidity. I know it’s unethical and I would never fully advocate not giving a person health care (I am a firm believer that health care is a human right) but these fools make me SO MAD
He probably hit his head too many times and became a full-on COVIDIOT.
His father is some kind of wingnut preacher who opened his church without masks last year and preaches anti-vax, QAnon-type nonsense from the pulpit. Kirk’s attitude is more ingrained than a product of outside head trauma.
This idiot needs to check into a mental health facility immediately as it is clear his brain is not firing on all cylinders,
Does this Neanderthal not realize that he is in “close contact” in every huddle before a play? Or when he comes into “close contact” when he in involved in a tackle? Or on the bench, with a coach, with a PT person, etc?
MORONS… dear God….
Paging Darwin: WTF is taking you so long!?
@BusyLizzy
You aren’t insinuating that people with head trauma/blows to the head are idiots, right?
wow seems like a great family…
Ha ha, just wrote something similar on the JA post. Either accept science and get the vax or deny science and don’t benefit from it when you sick.
I wrote something very similar there as well. I just can NOT with these &^*%$ MORONS.
Rabid anti-vaxxers do not deserve to occupy a hospital bed. I said what I said (former critical care nurse here). I’m so over this shit.
Maybe just blackball him like they did to Kaepernick. Oh wait …
LOL oh man this is a great point. this is it. nothing else need be said.
Don’t be silly Mac. He’s only being an ahole and putting lives at risk and making things riskier for the entire team.
It’s not like he’s a black man who took a knee.
Also, Kaepernick took the knee for something greater then himself – Cousins is a selfish person. But it’s easier to ruin a black man than standing up to a white man.
that part 🙁
I just typed the exact same thing. I am pissed for Colin Kaepernick, and there is surely not a better example of white privilege.
Personal freedom has consequences.
This morning I have read CNN fired some unvaccinated employees, so be it.
The only way to get these people vaccinated is to hurt their wallet, he needs to start losing sponsors.
I heard something on NPR yesterday about how they’re considering not paying both teams if there is an outbreak in one team that makes it impossible for that team to play. If the game can’t be rescheduled during the regular season, it will count as the covid outbreak team forfeiting, count as a loss for them, and neither team will be paid. I hope they do something like that. They had a (former?) player on who said that he wishes the NFL would incentivize rather than punish, like pay people who vaccinate a small bonus, and that made me mad. They’re paid so much already, they have such a cool job that so many people would love to have, they get sponsorships, and win bonuses, and play offs bonuses, and super bowl bonuses already. Would a vaccination bonus even be effective? And I’m kind of sick of already wealthy and privileged people having to be paid or rewarded for getting a vaccine. Incentives don’t seem to work that well anyways. Punishments seem to work better.
The sad part is a player like Cousins makes tens of millions per year, is set for life, and can absorb a fine/non-payment. Not everyone on the team is in that financial position.
But clearly he doesn’t care about anyone else anyway, since he could solve the problem and eliminate all these ridiculous attempts to prevent transmission if he’d just get the damn vaccine.
I’m fine when someone is vaccine hesitant, but willing to listen to others rationale and follows all other public health measures.
I’m not okay with people whose logic is super flawed like this guy. Won’t get a vaccine but will sit in plexiglass shield. Ugh dude the shield won’t protect you as well as the vaccine. He could still get Covid with the shield and then get very sick. Won’t get the vaccine but if sick will want all the experimental treatments to help get better. As a Covid tracker I’m so done with people refusing to get the vaccine for uneducated, uninformed, and selfish reasons
Will there be a plexiglass structure around him on the field too?
Right? Bird brain!
My thought exactly.
Exactly. What a moron. Meanwhile my younger son’s Big 10 university just posted that their entire football team and staff is 100% vaccinated. And the school is headed by a former Republican governor, who thank goodness chose public safety over politics when it comes to dealing with the virus.
Are you talking about U Dub?
That would be perfect; all around him on the bench while they don’t let him play and don’t pay him. That might work.
How “special” must this idiot feel he is? He’s trying to make it sound like he’s got the team’s best interests at heart. His stance is about him, not his teammates. He’s putting lipstick on a pig. No offense to pigs.
Be sure to tune in the week after an away game in Florida, when the Vikings will run out of backups and be forced to field random large men off the street!
This guy is delusional or not that bright. There is no possible way that he both avoids the vaccine and contacting covid for the next year. He’ll never be inside with an unmasked person again? He lives with people? Will he have a family dinner? Is everyone vaccinated in his inner circle? Even then break through cases?! If this is not the most vomit inducing example of privileged ignorance.
This guy has also said at the beginning of last season during the pandemic, “if I die, I die”….“I have peace. I don’t believe I control the outcome of my life. There are many things out of my control, but obviously my faith is at the foundation of my life, and I trust the Lord to handle things.”
I’m not sure he can be convinced to have a change of heart.
This guy is from the same hometown as Betsy DeVos… They even attended the same high school (years apart obviously) if that gives you any idea as to his mentality of growing up. Ironically, it’s Holland Christian High School where they should be doing things to protect others, but obviously not the case. I grew up there too but thankfully am not a selfish a$$hole.
Also, as a lifelong Vikings fan – this guy is a terrible quarterback too. My mom is so salty about his salary and now this.
They should have asked him if he’d like to walk into traffic on a freeway and see if he still has the same “I have no control over it” attitude.
And then ask him if he’d like to bring his family, friends, coworkers, etc along with him into traffic, because with a highly contagious disease, that’s what he’s doing.
Hey, dumbass, the Lord sent you a vaccine!
Truly. He doesn’t care about anyone but himself and that is appalling and pathetic, especially for someone so ostensibly religious.
Apparently, he gets it from his father. There’s a video going around Twitter of his dad preaching and saying that Satan is behind ‘cancel culture’ and Black Lives Matter movement in pro sports.
If the Gov of VA can issue an order to have state employees vaccinated or get tested every week, then the NFL can do the same.
They did last week. Didn’t mandate masks but went after team and players money? Hefty fines and forfeit game wins.
There are a fair number of college coaches who have decided that while they can’t require their athletes to get vaccinated, they can make life difficult on the athletes who don’t get the shot. These players are getting tested every other day and the window to get tested is like from 5:30-6 a.m.
I hadn’t heard that, but making 19 year olds get up at 5am to get tested is genius.
Also, these players are injected with so much crap already – shots for pain, barely legal steroids, muscle treatments etc. The hypocrisy here is heavy sigh inducing
Eff him and everyone who thinks like him.
Totally.
And #GFY, Kirk.
He is such an idiot and to top it off, he sucks as a QB, great team leadership dude
He just sounds like an idiot. His quotes made my head hurt.
“As I said to [him], I said…”
“We can meet in the indoor…”
“…if that’s what it takes to get to the playoffs and be in playoff games and win playoff games….”
“…avoid this close-contact thing.”
“I’ve even thought about, should I just set up literally Plexiglas….”
The way that he speaks, the way he words things. He sounds so stupid. What he’s saying is dumb, but also the way he is saying it makes him sound dumb.
There’s a certain brand of folks who have told surveyors that they think the risks of the COVID-19 vaccine are greater than the risks of the disease itself. I’m starting to wonder if it’s (internalized) racism. In the first wave of the virus, it was mostly people of color who died, and “healthy” white people more often got a “mild” case. So without any sense of public health, they think, “Eh, the vaccine’s worse.” But with the Delta variant, it looks like more white people are dying, their children are getting severe disease, and studies are starting to come out that even people with those “mild” cases are just as likely to have long COVID symptoms, including dementia-like cognition problems. They’re going to really regret their thought process–and it harms all of us because newer, stronger variants are coming because they don’t care about the rest of it. Wear your masks even if you’re considered in a safer area!
more younger, previously healthy, people are being admitted for it thanks to the delta variant and lambda is so much worse
at this point, I can’t be the better person, I actually want him to get COVID & for an outcome that forces him into retirement
Agree with you. A lot of people I know thought it was an immune compromised, old, and minority virus. They think if they are healthy they are fine. We really need to educate people on mutations.
So, so many people believed that, if they weren’t old or didn’t have risk factors, they’d be fine. My area just had a big outbreak among teenagers. It’s affecting everyone now, because of these dumbasses who continue to spread it.
Even if Cousins were a decent QB ( I happen to think he’s not), there’s really no amount of talent that could compensate for someone who is willing to risk the lives of his teammates and their families, not to mention forfeit a game without pay if the team has to pull out due to Covid.
At what point are willfully unvaccinated people a financial or legal risk for a business? Unfortunately, I think that is the only thing that will motivate some of them.
F— him. That’s all I’ve got.
I sort of imagine him in his plexiglass like Maxwell Smart in the Cone of Silence.
I am a fellow Spartan so I followed Kirk’s career and always wished him the best. But this is stupid. Plus he has at least one very young child at home, if he doesn’t care about anyone else he should at the very least care about his kids. I assume his wife feels the same as him, although I haven’t read that.
The NFL is a BILLION dollar business. They have a right to protect that business. Make vaccines mandatory. If you don’t comply, void their contract and call up an undrafted/free agent player more than willing to get the vaccine and LEAP at the chance to play and prove themselves. Cousins is not even a good QB. I just can’t with these people.
All of this – even if you go beyond the moral and social reasons to get vaccinated, businesses have lost so much due to the pandemic, and I think employers should really be cracking down on it, because one person being selfish and/or stupid can have a huge impact on the rest of the staff.
This! Mandatory vaccines for professional athletes. Period. Let’s see how much he likes losing his job or not getting paid. Plus, I’m sure there are health clauses built into contracts. It’s enough of giving into these non-vaxxers. We will never get out of this crap!
So awful. Apparently his dad is a preacher who hates BLM, defends confederate monuments, etc. And Kirk said at some point during the year that people who wear masks are lemmings. So yea – pretty much disgusting all around.
Fire him, today. This is ridiculous. And hitting the nfl in the only way it matters- anti vaxxers are costly.
The likelihood that this “very private health matter” douchepocalypse is a forced birther is 100%.
The GOP hypocrisy is nothing new, but this one makes my eyes water.
This ^^^^^
This 💯
I never heard of this a$$hole until Twitter lit up last night, and it was 🔥🔥🔥. I get that he’s under a very pricey contract and firing him would cause a big hit to the cap, but he’s not considered a good QB on top of everything (wins against poor teams, loses consistently against strong teams).
A funny tweet … “To be fair, you have to have a good arm to get the vaccine.”
As a Minnesotan and a Vikings fan, f*ck this guy. He’s not a good enough quarterback to pull a stunt like this, and honestly he’s grossly overpaid as it is. Minnesota as a state has a relatively high rate of vaccination overall, but that’s mostly due to the large cities like Minneapolis/St Paul, Rochester, Duluth, etc. The rural hick areas (where I live, unfortunately) are the holdouts. And they’re the ones that will celebrate Cousins for this.
I’m rural Minnesota too and totally agree with your statement, @Riley. It’s embarrassing to be a Vikings fan with this idiot.
It’s embarrassing enough to be a Vikes fan under normal circumstances 😛
You guys are giving me life. I’m rural MN born and raised, parents still live there. Totally feel you on the social/political/public health mentality of those areas. Also, “embarrassing enough to be a Vikes fan…” yes! sentiments I hear from family and friends up there all the time! Although I’m a Broncos fan lol.
Yeah Cousins sucks as a human and as a QB. I’m sure his brand of “Christianity” is wrapped up in this.
He needs to not play. They have other quarterbacks.
I read that the NFL has a new policy where if a team cannot compete because of the number of COVID exposures within the team the game will no longer be pushed to another date, but that team will forfeit and get a loss and the players on the team will not get paid.
And for what it’s worth, I always thought Cousins was a turd. Go Eagles.
Source? I did a quick Google search and couldn’t find it. I really hope this is true!
Here you go: https://www.nfl.com/news/nfl-covid-19-outbreaks-unvaccinated-players-forfeit-cancelled-game
“if a game cannot be rescheduled during the 18-week schedule due to a COVID-19 outbreak among unvaccinated players, the team with the outbreak will forfeit and be credited with a loss, per sources informed of the situation.
In addition, players on both teams will not be paid for the lost contest, and the team responsible for the cancelled game due to unvaccinated players will cover financial losses and be subject to potential discipline from the Commissioner’s office.”
So i missed the mark on will not be rescheduled – they need to somehow squeeze it into the regular schedule.
LOL, Kirk Cousins.. man on the ground, maybe he won’t get hit as much if he is surrounded in plexiglass. But also, all these vaccine deniers in the NFL, they need to be fired.
All right, I need to say this on the record….
I live in Minnesota. And this idiot does not speak for Minnesota!
OMG, I am fed up with anti-vaxxers!!
‘If it means meeting outside under a goalpost in January, if that’s what it takes to get to the playoffs and be in playoff games and win playoff games, then that’s where we’re going to meet.’
I love the “we” of this crazy scenario he uses here—meetings under the goalpost in Minnesota in January 🙄. So the entire group would need to sacrifice because he won’t get a vaccine that protects himself and them? The selfishness of his “freedom” can come at a cost for everyone else.
My jaw actually dropped at that part. That’s like anti-leadership. That’s the kind of ridiculousness you don’t expect to encounter outside of a textbook because it’s such an exaggerated caricature.
He wants to force his teammates to have meetings outside in January in Minnesota, but he’s worried about personal freedom. Cool, man.
I live in MN and I think this a disgrace. He is putting himself his family and his teammates at risk. Hit him in the wallet and dock his pay. Let him seek employment elsewhere.
Why do I feel like the next thing he is going to tell us is that he doesn’t shower?
LOL!
Vikings fan here. Can’t stand the guy. You play a team sport idiot. This isn’t just about you. NFL should have mandated.
Cousins never has to worry about making it to the playoffs….he is not good enough.
Fire his ass.
IF he was worried about it for health reasons he could have gotten a shot back in the Spring when he wasn’t about to start a season of football!!
Oh…and good luck in January Kirk!
(Anyone want to take bets he’ll get it before then?)
Stupid is as stupid does.
These idiots will end up killing us all.
Our tragic flaw as a country is hubris mixed with profound ignorance.
Force this a-hole to retire/resign from the game. Phuck this ignorant fool!
He went to Betsy DeVoss’ school of choice, Holland Christian. That should explain a lot right there (I promise the town isn’t completely full of those nutters).
Duplicate response, deleted.
Meanwhile, Colin Kaepernick still has no job in the NFL, for kneeling, but this joke is going to build himself a plexiglass bubble and make all his meetings in January, IN MINNESOTA, outside. Awesome.
School me people. How does the most direct contact sport in the world enforce close contact at all! This is stupid. Send the antivax players home and play without them.
Have these anti vaxxers not gotten MMR vax? Have they NEVER received medical treatment? Do they not go to a doctor ever??
I just can’t anymore…
Can he wear a plexiglass cage over his head? I think that would do it to protect others. How does he breathe? That’s his own very personal medical choice to make. You’ve got good judgment, dude. Figure it out.
@monica “ hey dumbass, the lord brought you a vaccine!”
GOLD!
J Ferber – just my thought, although I kindly enough envisioned a space helmet with an oxygen tank.
A sport like football really needs to insist on at least current vaccinations. That isn’t 100% protection, but it greatly reduces the risk of severe illness if you do get exposed to the virus and hopefully reduces chance of transmission to someone else if the viral load is kept low enough. Delta is a big problem because it’s so contagious so more people get the virus and of course that means cases of serious illness increase as well.
The problem is that this guy is exposed if he visits family and like-minded friends. He is more likely than most to be the plague carrier even if vaccinated.