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When fans saw the yellow markdown tag attached to a purple and gold jersey with the No. 8 stitched in mint condition, there was some warranted disbelief.
Not to be confused with a clearance sale on Sam Bradford jerseys, it seems the Vikings‘ $150 million man, Kirk Cousins, is struggling to sell jerseys in the Vikings’ home state.
Cousins jerseys in both purple and white were slashed by over $100 last week at Pro Image Sports in the Mall of America, located 11 miles from U.S. Bank Stadium. Fans can score a stitched Cousins jersey for $49 after they were priced at $150 at the start of the season.
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‘We’re Just Trying to Pump ‘Em Out’
Store owner Jesse Kern told City Pages the price drop was reflective of the fan base losing confidence in Cousins after the Vikings’ 0-3 start to the season.
“People get more and more negative on him, and we have a decent amount of jerseys to push through,” Kern said with a chuckle. “We’re just trying to pump ’em out.”
Cousins has garnered over $150 million guaranteed from the Vikings after receiving a two-year, $66 million contract extension this offseason. His three-year, $84 million fully guaranteed contract he signed in 2018 was the highest amount of guaranteed cash of any NFL contract in history.
The jersey sales followed Cousins’ first contract with the Vikings as he sold the 16th-highest amount of player-branded merchandise from March 1 to May 31 in 2018. Cousins had never cracked the NFL Players Association’s top 50 player sales list with the Redskins, per the Washington Times.
The honeymoon ended quickly as fans have tempered the hype surrounding Cousins as he was again outside the top 50 on last year’s list despite playing the best season of his career in 2019.
Cousins Unlikely to Win Fans Over Soon
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GettyCousins will need to start winning big games to change his perception in the NFL.
Cousins has been a fringe .500 quarterback for most of his career, and after Sunday’s loss to the Titans, he again sank below that marker with a 44-45-2 career record.
But despite the ups and downs of his career, fans have generally not taken an interest in Cousins.
“It’s just a situation where we have a lot of stock and fans just do not want his jersey,” Kern said. “(Cousins) could throw for 500 yards and five TDs next week and people will still won’t buy it.”
This is assumingly due to his primetime record and lack of playoff experience as fans nationwide have keyed in solely on his record and not his play.
Cousins is 0-9 in primetime games and picked up the first playoff win of his nine-year career last season. Despite the nuances of the losses and Cousins not having the best supporting cast in Washington, he’ll need to begin to assert himself as a winner when the stage is the brightest if he’s going to become a respectable force in the NFL.
His walk-off victory over the Saints in the NFC Wild Card round was a start, but Cousins’ 0-3 start to the season has fans again tempering expectations.
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Trevor Squire is a Heavy contributor covering the Minnesota Vikings and journalism graduate from the University of Minnesota — Twin Cities. Connect with him on Twitter @trevordsquire and join our Vikings community at Heavy on Vikings on Facebook.
