Mike Florio shreds Kirk Cousins during Minnesota radio interview
"Joe Burrow is the anti-Kirk Cousins."
That's what NBC Sports NFL insider and creator of ProFootballTalk.com Mike Florio said when appearing on Twin Cities radio station KFAN FM 100.3 on Wednesday, which prompted 9-to-Noon host Paul Allen to apologize on Twitter.
Originally thought to be a tongue-in-cheek lashing of the Minnesota Vikings quarterback, Florio made clear that he was dead serious.
After the segment ended, Paul said that "it was all somewhat tongue-in-cheek" from me. It was not.
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) January 25, 2023
So what was all said? It was far more than Florio saying Joe Burrow is better than Kirk Cousins. Florio barked a passionate argument for why he thinks Cousins just doesn't have the moxie to lead the Vikings, or any team for that matter, to the promised land.
"When the lights get bright," Florio began, "you know, this is a very real human dynamic. You've got one game, your whole season is riding on it. Do you crumble or do you rise? Joe Burrow rises. Kirk crumbles. I'm sorry, but it's true. And I'm starting to put Josh Allen in the Kirk category."
He continued: "Kirk doesn't have it. You can take your rose-colored glasses and shove them up your butt," Florio said to Allen, who has been the radio play-by-play announcer for the Vikings for the last two-plus decades.
"The checkdown shorty to Hockenson, does not a crumble make," Allen replied, referencing the 4th-and-8 play in the fourth quarter of Minnesota's playoff loss to the Giants in which Cousins threw short to Hockenson to seal the home loss.
"There are moments, there are opportunities. They are fleeting. Those moments that kids dream about, when they're counting the clock down, it's the last play of the game; you wait all your life for that moment. When that moment arrives, what do you do? There's a consistency. Some guys step up, some guys don't," said Florio. "Short of the sticks. You got Justin Jefferson out there – a finalist for MVP – and you don't throw him the ball? I don't care if he's double-covered."
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.