Kirk Cousins reveals gnarly scar, wonders if cleats caused injury
Had Kirk Cousins been wearing normal football cleats maybe the Achilles tendon in his right leg never would've ruptured on Oct. 29, 2023.
Cousins, now more than three months removed from the season-ending injury, revealed Thursday during an appearance with Pat McAfee in Las Vegas for the Super Bowl that he wonders if the spikes he was wearing caused the injury.
"We always wear the long cleats at Lambeau, and I just wonder," Cousins began, explaining to former Packers linebacker and McAfee's co-host A.J. Hawk that he wore longer, screw-in spikes for Minnesota's game against Green Bay at Lambeau Field.
"We had a bunch of slips in the game the previous year in January so we said this year we all gotta do it, no exceptions. And [Vikings right tackle] Brian O'Neill had tore his Achilles the previous year at Lambeau wearing the screw-ins. First time he ever wore them, he tore his Achilles. So I just wonder, I just wonder, but again, I could point to 17 other things that make you wonder, too."
Cousins, who also revealed a gnarly scar from the surgery, says he'll probably avoid wearing longer spikes in the future.
Kirk Cousins showing off his Achilles scar on McAfee.
— Will Ragatz (@WillRagatz) February 8, 2024
"Making sure it heals up clean, so I ever want to be a foot and ankle model, I can still do that." pic.twitter.com/Hch7hkpCvv
"I don't think I can wear screw-ins just knowing what happened," he said. "I think I gotta wear normal cleats and as a pocket passer I think I can get away with that."
Cousins said he has "about four months to go" before he'll be back to normal, which puts his timeline to being 100% or at least close to 100% some time in May, which would be well ahead of training camp.
Talk about Cousins' future was kept to a minimum during the interview, but Cousins did reiterate that he would "love to be back in Minnesota."
"Honestly, I'd love to be back in Minnesota. But even Minnesota, those conversations don't start yet. It's more late February, early March," he said. "Until we can get to March 1 maybe, maybe a little after that, you just don't really expect much."
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.