Although Kirk Cousins, the quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings, is not playing in Sunday’s Super Bowl, he is a champion off the field.
He will receive the 2023 Bart Starr Award at this year’s Super Bowl breakfast. The award honors Starr’s lifelong commitment to serving as a positive role model to his family, teammates and community. The award is given annually to an NFL player who best exemplifies character, integrity and leadership on and off the field.
Cousins, 34, has been an outspoken Christian throughout his NFL career. He has five words posted on his website: Faith, Family, Football, Generosity, Leadership.
Cousins says God has given him much.
“I learned he’s decisive and the Holy Spirit is never confused,” he told CBN News recently. “So if there’s disagreement, the problem is probably on our end, not on his. He’s always spoken to me through his peace. We have the benefit of other experiences where we’ve trusted him. So here we are again, making that decision to come here and believing God is in it.”
Cousins and his wife launched the Julie & Kirk Cousins Foundation to build on their faith through targeted philanthropy.
On the site he also quotes Luke 12:48, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, even more will be expected.”
He goes on to explain that he and his wife are “grateful for the privilege to play in the NFL, but also believe we have a responsibility to manage well what we have been given, and to be generous with it.”
The foundation has provided support to numerous outlets, including Bethany Christian Services, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Compassionate Heart Ministries, Discovery Church, Holland Christian Schools and International Justice Mission.
He also has promoted reading the Bible to his fans. In 2020, he announced that he concluded reading through the entire Bible, urging others to complete the same challenge. “It took me over two years, but just finished reading through the entire Bible for the first time,” he tweeted. “Definitely recommend it!”
Cousins credits his parents for laying a solid foundation.
“I was fortunate to have a dad who was very involved, very present, very wise,” he said. “Just about every experience we had through the years, my dad would bring back to our faith walk and our faith journey. So it was pretty hard to go a day or a week and not go through something without scripture being accompanied to it, so it would be a great thing if I parented close to the way my mom and dad raised me.
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice