A couple of things that just rubbed me the wrong way from a personality style when Cousins first signed here; I heard he was going to have camera crews film him and the process of choosing a new team and I thought, "that's pretty lame but whatever, seems like he's trying to market himself and other athletes have done it." I also remember reading that he trademarked the saying, "You Vike That!" which again my first reaction was, "wow what a dork, but he's trying to capitalize and market himself" (aside from the fact that that has to be one of the dumbest trademarked lines ever). Also, every time I've seen him in interviews, he seems to act like a politician and is extremely premeditated and lacks a certain sense of authenticity. Just a couple of initial thoughts of when I have seen his public face and trying to make some inferences on him as a person.
Fast forward to the beginning of the year and Vikings are starting to fall short of the lofty expectations many had, and Kirk would deflect blame from his own performance and point out the mistakes others were making in interviews. I know it's cliche media speak for the quarterback to get all the blame when things go wrong and all the praise when things go right, but the way he would answer questions made me think of someone who never takes responsibility for their own actions and tries to blame others or situations. While that holds true for some of it (ex. disastrous O-line), Cousins still was making his share of mistakes that he would not own up to. To me, if you are a leader, you need to be able to hold yourself accountable, have the humility to admit to mistakes you make, and have the tough skin to be able to take criticism and then improve.
Finally, some of the sideline shots they showed yesterday, in addition to the one from a few weeks ago between him and Thielen and "it's been there all f-ing day." I'm not sure that his teammates really like him or that he is a very likable guy or has the qualities you need in a leader. The animated discussions from yesterday between him and Thielen, the daggers that Diggs was staring through him, or the look of complete disinterest and disgust that Cook was showing while Cousins was trying to point out what Cook had done wrong when they had that incompletion. He doesn't seem to have the respect of his teammates. There are ways to hold people accountable for mistakes and there are ways that you can talk to them while showing respect. The sense I get is that his teammates just kind of tune him out when he approaches them in this fashion or they don't respond well.
My worry is that he is here for another two years because of his contract. Could this affect the overall make up of the team, especially when I'm not sure we can identify clear leaders on the offensive side of the ball? Not every quarterback has to be a charismatic leader but they have to be a likable person and I have doubts on whether Cousins is that person.
I also want to point out that obviously this is a lot of speculation and just based on perceptions and there is no way of knowing the actual truth unless you had honest sources from the inside, but I thought a discussion on Cousin's intangible qualities might be worthwhile. I know people have a hard time agreeing on much more tangible aspects of his such as on-field performance so a very objective and perception based topic like this might be an exercise in futility but I thought I'd at least give it a go
Not to mention my first topic started ever!
