You like that?

Vikings quarterback Kurt Kirk Cousins was asked about the prospect of playing in empty stadiums this season and offered up this response, via ESPN’s Courtney Cronin:

“Honestly, we practice every day in an empty grass area and pump in fake crowd noise for away games,” Cousins said on a conference call. “But more often than not, you’re used to it. OTA practices don’t have a lot of pomp and circumstance to them. So honestly, to go out and just play the game would kind of be refreshing, a breath of fresh air, to just let us know that we don’t have to have all the smoke and the fire. We can just play football. So as long as we’re playing the game, I won’t have a lot of complaints, and hopefully if it’s still not returned to normal, we can find a way to make it work.”

Other outlets took this quote and wrote headlines that made it seem like Cousins was anti-fan, or a guy who doesn’t want to face pressure or booing, and maybe that’s true. I don’t know. If you read between the lines you could come to the conclusion that perhaps he thinks having supporters in the stands is not very important. That’s 70,000 fewer people jeering him when he throws an incomplete third down pass.

But here’s the thing:


Less crowd noise would provide a competitive advantage for offenses. No silent counts and clear communication would result in much more fluid execution with fewer false starts and related o-line penalties. It would be easier to hear play calls in your headset and call audibles at the line of scrimmage. For that reason, I guess every quarterback would be justified in saying that fan-less stadiums would be beneficial.

Cousins did carry a reputation as a guy who comes up small in big moments, at least coming into 2019. Then he threw 26 touchdowns and six interceptions in the regular season before beating the Saints on the road in the playoffs. It’s also true that Minnesota ran the shit out of the ball, but I think we’d have to all agree that Cousins had a really good year and maybe we should hold off on ripping him right now. That quote is being twisted slightly to make it look like he’s a loser.