30 Mind-Blowing Facts About Kirk Cousins That Every Fan Should Know

15 May 2019, 12:00 pm EDT By Ruby Karnick

Kirk Cousins, the current quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (NFL), has earned the nickname "Captain Kirk" from the media for his presence as a leader. Here are some really interesting facts about the American footballer:

He was born Kirk Daniel Cousins, on August 19, 1988, in Barrington, Illinois, to Maryann and Don Cousins, a pastor. He is the second of three children.
Cousins attended Holland Christian high School in Holland, Michigan, where he excelled in football, baseball and basketball. Earned All-Ottawa-Kent Conference honors as a quarterback for the football team, as pitcher for the baseball squad and a shooting guard for basketball.
In 2007, he accepted a scholarship to join Western Michigan, to study human Kinesiology. He was their backup quarterback and he also participated in Athletes in Action sports ministry.
After spending major part of the 2008 season as an understudy, he was considered for starting quarterback in 2009 and led Spartans to a 6-7 with 19 touchdowns, 9 interceptions and 2,680 passing yards in 12 games.
In 2011, he led Spartans to its first ever Big-Ten championship game. He completed 267 passes of 419 attempts for 3,316 yards with 25 touchdown and 10 interceptions and was named in All-Big Ten Second team by coaches.
As the Student Athlete of the year, Cousins was awarded the ‘Lowes’s Senior CLASS Award’for 2011, and made himself available for NFL Draft. At the NFL Scouting combine, he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.93s and measured 28.5 inches in vertical jump.
At the 2012 NFL Draft, Cousins was picked as seventh choice in the fourth round and 102nd overall pick by Washington Redskins. He was viewed as a future investment for Redskins.
On October 07, 2012, he made his debut in the third quarter of the game against Atlanta Falcons and threw his first career touchdown pass on a 77-yard pass to Santana Moss.
He made his first career start in week 15 against Cleveland Browns and finished the day 26 of 37 for 329 yards with 2 touchdown passes to help Redskins win 38 to 21.
Cousins ended the 2012 season completing 36 of 58 for 497 yards with 4 touchdowns and 3 interceptions in four games including the playoffs. He was voted the ‘Pepsi NFL Rookie of the Week’ for week 15 to become the third Redskins rookie to receive the honors that season.

He once again performed the role of backup to Robert Griffin III for the 2013 season and appeared in five games recording 81 of 155 passes for 854 yards with 4 touchdowns and 7 interceptions.
In March 2014, he raised $12,000 for his Kirk Cousins Football Camp, by giving his jersey #12 to wide receiver Andre Roberts and switched over to the #8 jersey, a number he wore throughout his high school and college career.
On September 14, 2014, in the game against Jacksonville Jaguars, Cousins replaced Griffin and completed 22 of 33 passing for 250 yards, with 2 touchdowns to guide Redskins to a 41- 10 victory.
After achieving a personal high of 427 passing yards, Cousins had a very poor outing for the rest of the season. He was benched in the game against Titans and did not play for the reminder of the 2014 season.
On October 04, 2015, with Eagle leading 20-16, Cousins threw one incomplete pass to Crowder before connecting with Garcon for the game-winning touchdown with 35 seconds left for a 23-20 win. It was his second game winning drive of his career and also a zero interceptions for the second consecutive game.
Cousins achieved a rare and their largest comeback win in franchise history, when he threw a final touchdown pass to Jordan Reed in the final seconds of the game against Buccaneers on October 25, 2015. After being 24-0 in the second quarter, Cousins led them to victory with 33 of 40 for 317 passing yards with 4 touchdowns.
He became the first quarterback in NFL history with two-game winning touchdowns in the final 30 seconds of the games in the same calendar month. After the game heading into locker room he said ‘You like that?’ to reporters, which became Redskins catchphrase for the rest of the season.
As Redskins crushed the Saints 47-14, on November 15, Cousins achieved a perfect passing rating of 158.3, making him the first Redskins quarterback since 1950 to do that with at least 20 attempts. He also had career high four touchdowns.
It was an emotional moment for Cousins following the victory over Saints, when he rushed to his family’s seats and handed his father the game ball. Cousins did not disappoint his father, Don who had successfully battled cancer and was healthy enough to see his son play.
He ended the 2015 season posting a league leading completion percentage of 69.8 percentages which is also second in team history behind Sammy Baugh’s 70.3% in 1945. He also had 4,166 passing yards with 29 touchdowns.

After extending his contract for $20 million a year, Cousins achieved a career high 458 yards against Bengals on October 30, 2016. The game ended in 27 all tie.
Cousins led the Redskins to 8-7-1 winning record for the 2016 season and set a personal and franchise single season passing yardage record with 4,917, which was also third highest in NFL. He was also selected ‘Offensive Player of the Week’ for Week 11 apart from being named ‘Player of The Month’ for November and earned his first Pro Bowl call.
On February 28, 2017, Cousins and Redskins agreed to terms that will keep the quarterback in Washington at least for the 2017 season with a fully-guaranteed deal. This the first time in NFL history that a quarterback has been given a franchise tag in consecutive years.
He ended the 2017 season 347-of-540 for 4,093 yards with 27 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions. The 2017 season marked his third consecutive season of passing for at least 4,000 yards and was ranked 94th by his peers on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2018.
On March 15, 2018, Cousins signed a groundbreaking, fully guaranteed, three-year, $84 million deal as the new quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings. It was then the highest paid contract.
He made his debut for Vikings against 49ers in a 24-16 victory in the season opener. The throws Cousins made in tight coverage at important times were on target and he passed for 244 yards with two touchdowns.
On September 17, 2018, Cousins threw three touchdowns passes in the fourth quarter to help rally his team from a 20-7 deficit against the Green Bay Packers before letting the game end in a 29-29 tie. He finished with 425 yards, four touchdowns and an interception.
Despite strong statistical start to the season for Cousins, inconsistency within the offense and coaching staff had impacted Vikings result. He finished his first season completing 425 of 606 passing for 4,298 passing yards with 30 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
Cousins proposed to his girlfriend Julie Hampton on November 22, 2013, with the picturesque D.C. in the background and got married on June 28, 2014, in Atlanta, Georgia.
He has earned a nickname ‘Captain Kirk’ in reference to ‘Star Trek’ character from the media for his leadership quality. He has appeared in several commercials with Eastern Motors, a local D.C. used car dealer.