Kirk Cousins Says Vikings Played Creed Song Before Victory Over Bears

Cousins jokingly credited the band with making a difference in the Vikings' win.

Will Ragatz | Oct 15, 2023

In this story:

Minnesota Vikings

Playing music by the rock band Creed has worked for the Texas Rangers, who are in baseball's American League Championship Series. Maybe it'll work for the Vikings, too.

After beating the Bears at Soldier Field on Sunday, Kirk Cousins — a noted longtime Creed fan — said center Garrett Bradbury played one of their songs in the pregame locker room, which he jokingly noted might've made the difference.

"Garrett Bradbury, in the locker room pregame, took a clip from the Texas Rangers and made sure that Creed got played before we went out on the field," Cousins said. "And I felt like that may have made the difference. So we've got that going for us."

Cousins said the song in question was Higher, one of the band's biggest hits from their 1999 album Human Clay.

"They've got quite a catalog," Cousins said. "We started with Higher this week. We didn't want to over-step our bounds. So just one Higher. Next week, maybe we can see what we go to from there."

"We'll see," he said when asked if this will become a tradition. "But it may have made the difference, who knows."

This was just the Vikings' second victory in six games, so why not give Creed another shot next week before a primetime game against the 5-1 49ers?

"The Rangers have been playing Creed and they're rolling in the playoffs," Cousins said. "We've been listening to it in the lifts a little bit here and there. Music's banging on the boom box most pregames, and we thought we'd mix up the genre a little bit, get some Creed in there. Garrett made sure it happened. It was well-received."

In all seriousness, Cousins knows the Vikings' offense needs to play a lot better than they did in Sunday's 19-13 win over the Bears. With no Justin Jefferson, they managed just 220 net yards and went 2-for-13 on third downs, getting bailed out by a defense that forced three Chicago turnovers and scored as many touchdowns as the offense did.

That kind of offensive performance won't get the job done next week against San Francisco, no matter how much Creed gets played in the pregame locker room.

"We're not going to be picky about finding a way to get a win," Cousins said. "We could have, should have, need to be much better on offense."