Talking faith, family, and football with Kirk Cousins

hi I'm Susie Larson thank you for listening to Susie Larson live Faith radio podcasts are only possible because of your support so thanks for giving and thanks for sharing with a friend you're listening to an encore presentation of Susie Larsson law so the back R you glad cuz just won't do Dan you don't have know to ever got you welcome to Suzy Larson live always so honored to get to spend this time with you in fact I look forward to bringing you conversations every single day that hopefully inspire you in your faith walk that deepen your understanding of God's word and that heightens your awareness of his very real presence in your life well I can hardly believe who my guest is today are you ready Kurt Cousins joins me to talk football family and Faith Kirt cousins is a quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons he played college football at Michigan State and was was drafted by the Washington commanders in the 2012 NFL draft at the beginning of the 2015 season Kirk was named as the starting quarterback for Washington and remained the team starter until 2017 he was named to the 2017 Pro bow in March 2018 he signed with the Minnesota Vikings in 2019 Kirk led the Vikings to a wildcard victory over the New Orleans Saints the first overtime playoff win in team history Kirk was named to the 2020 and 2022 to NFC Pro Bowl teams in 2024 he signed with the Atlanta Falcons Kirk welcome to the show it's such an honor to have you on the show I have been a fan for a long time so thanks for making time for me oh the feelings are mutual I used to listen to Sports Talk Radio growing up and people would call in and say first time long time meaning they were a firsttime caller but a longtime listener and I feel like saying that to you because I've listened to your show for a long time but this is my first time calling in wow I love that well that's amazing well then you know this first question I ask every day is more personal nature it's just really about your faith Journey as you've been spending time with the Lord these days what's he been most impressing upon your heart yeah I was just at church on Sunday and uh our pastor has been doing a series on the fruits of the spirit and he was wrapping it up with self-control which as Galatians listed is the final final fruit and um it was just really interesting the way he um you know talked about how self-control really kind of ties the fruits of the spirit together and how you know so much in society we want self-control but without the Holy Spirit we're really operating on a deficient power source to try to do it in our own willpower and so um it was just interesting as I'm raising my two boys and as I'm a professional athlete who knows a lot about discipline and delayed gratification and as Paul talks about in Corinthians how you know runners run in such a way as to get the prize but that it takes discipline and um and I was just thinking about how I got to raise my boys to have self-control and to have delayed gratification and that it's such a key to success in life um but without the holy spirit it's very difficult to do so I thought it was a very uh very good sermon that just had me thinking as I walked out of church like I so often do after a Sunday service that's so good you know we are we have three boys they're all grown now but my hubby used to tell them about that you know the difference between doing something in your own strength and then the strength of the spirit is moving from hand tools to power tools cuz he's a commercial conru guy but he's like he would show him even like a screw gun you know or some some kind of power tool and I think it's such a beautiful picture because our our own discipline can take us to a certain extent because we're so fearfully and wonderfully made but then you had the power of the spirit in it you can defy expectations uh that um leave most people mind boggles that that is awesome well you've got an amazing Dad I know that as well Rob reamer is another regular guest we have on the show and I know your dad endorsed his book and uh I've just read some things about your pop but I would love to know just on your personal backstory of your faith Journey when it became your own yeah my dad's a pastor so I grew up in a Christian household I'm a PK pastor's kid and so uh you're not going to make it very far growing up in a in a pastor's household without hearing the gospel so I remember being you know seven or eight and praying the sinner's prayer and acknowledging that I'm a sinner in need of a savior and that Jesus is that Savior and that I want him to take the Throne of my life but when you're seven or eight years old there's only so much you can really understand about what that means I felt like it was probably middle of high school when I realized that following Jesus might actually cost me something it might cost me a friendship in high school it might cost me a a Friday night or a Saturday night in high school and that the things that cost me could get bigger and bigger as the years go on and I had to kind of make a decision in those Middle High School years uh was I going to go all out and I made a decision I'm G to be a fully devoted uh follower of Jesus even if that cost me something and as the years have gone on I've observed a Time where culture goes left and Jesus goes right or culture goes right and Jesus goes left and you have to go with Jesus even if that means separating from culture and so um I would say ear probably Middle High School is when I made my facei my own and then it was tested you know time and again in high school and then and then even more so going to a major uh Public University in Michigan State and um and then through my NFL years which have now gone on over a decade isn't it amazing when you look back at the things you know I always say what God allows he redeems and so he's not looking for Perfection you know sometimes you fall down sometimes you bump into culture but you rise back up and you got new mercies you've got God on your side he's for you and he's training you and where you stand now looking back that all you endured all that you experienced how it has prepared you for now I mean don't aren't you just in awe of the goodness and the meticulous attention to detail that God employs in your life yes our family had prayed throughout my college Years and then continued it through my Pro years the the verse in Ephesians Ephesians 3:20 that God would do immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine that was a prayer of our family really around my football career and um God has answered that prayer time and again he's done immeasurably more than what we could have asked or imagined on this journey and I remember my dad saying that he believes God led him to become a pastor because it would be a profession for my dad that would keep my dad close to the Lord and I would say the same of being a profession athlete being a quarterback that it's a profession that has driven me to be very dependent on God on a daily basis and I I do often feel inadequate in the job and so it forces me to recognize my need for him and so part of my story of being a professional athlete and being able to live a dream is that God's used it to really keep me close to him I love that so much so when I don't know if I've I mean I've seen a lot of interviews on on you and I've watched the quarterback series twice um I don't know if I've ever heard the answer to this but when did you know in your football career when did you kind of have an inkling in your own gut I could play for the NFL I mean you know sometimes young boys have that dream but other times you kind of have it in your knowwhere you know what I mean right I remember being in high school and we'd be you know in the summer laying down on our backs with friends looking up at the sky and you'd see a shooting star and you'd make a wish well my wish was always that I'd play professional football that really was the dream for as long as I can remember and I I remember being at recess in elementary school and I was sort of the all-time quarterback because the other kids just recognized the fact that Kirk throws a football a little differently I remember having a classmate pull me aside and say boy you really throw a football well and I said thanks and he said no no no I'm not just you really throw a football well and so I I knew in elementary school that this was a unique ability but I thought it meant I'd be the The Varsity quarterback at my high school was really where I thought it might lead and that alone would have been a great accomplishment but um God had much bigger plans and so I had a passion for football I love the game I is not big strong or fast and so while I threw a football well I thought I was going to have to be bigger and faster and stronger to ever make it but God had a way of still allowing me to to make it if you will and uh uh at times it was Against All Odds but um it's been it's been a fun journey and I similar to um CS Lewis's words you know talking about heaven I I think uh The Best Is Yet To Come is kind of how I view my football career up ahead a we believe that too Kirk for sure you know when I think about your journey from high school to college to now can you point back to we're going to get to your Achilles injury in just a minute but others like maybe even in college obstacles things that were kind of pushed back where you had to rise back up I mean things you had to overcome that again looking back now you go no that actually gave me some grit and uh I'm still standing right well I broke my ankle my junior year of high school and it was the very first varsity football game I ever played and I viewed my junior year on the varsity football team as my chance to be recruited because I was at a smaller school I was not playing on the varsity as a sophomore so I needed to have a great junior year and then I broke my ankle and I was going to miss my junior year and so I remember with the cast on my leg driving home from the hospital calling my dad and with tears in my eyes I said dad while it's sad to miss out on the memories of my junior year of football this really affects my future because I won't be able to play college football now due to a broken ankle and my dad said Kirk you don't know that God's a lot bigger than a broken ankle and if he if his plan is Sho by college football you'll play college football you know don't limit what God can do and and so he challenged me in that moment to to embrace the truth of Proverbs 3: 5 and 6 trust all Lord with all my heart to not lean on my understanding which said that I wouldn't get to play college football uh and to believe that if I acknowledged him that he would direct my steps as the verse says and so about 18 months later I signed a scholarship to go to my dream School Michigan State and my dad brought me back to that moment and said remember when you said you couldn't well God can he's a lot bigger than broken ankle and so I learned pretty quickly in that moment the truth of Proverbs 3 veres 5 and 6 the truth of that God's a lot bigger than a broken ankle and then it was time and again throughout college and throughout my Pro Journey where I feel like or felt like I was up against the Red Sea with mountains on each side and the Egyptians chasing me in a football career standpoint and I thought God unless you part the waters here I'm not making it and time and again God in one way or another parted the Red Sea for me and so well it's not a comfortable place to live I don't want to spend my whole life standing there at the edge of the Red Sea looking at mountains and Egyptians chasing me it's really what God's plan has been for me and it's where he's led me and it's forced me to rely on him and trust him and then to have a story to tell looking back yeah I've said so many times about my own backstory I shudder to think of who I would be if I would have gotten everything I wanted the way I wanted it I mean all all of my trials I feel like have trained me in a way that that uh maybe ease would not have and when we come back Kirk I want to understand more about how the NFL draft Works behind the scenes you're playing college football at Michigan how did you first know that playing NFL might become a reality and what was that like for you NFL quarterback Kirk Cousins is my guest today we'll be back in a moment you know the Bible says that the prayer of the righteous accomplishes Great and Powerful things than well friends we've got great and powerful things to accomplish on this Earth more than ever before people need Jesus and prayer makes all the difference it's our Lifeline to the Lord himself well our fundraiser is right around the corner and we're wondering would you pray for us that God would move in the hearts of our listeners that he would provide and accomplish what only he can do Faith radio is listener supported and we're only here because of you we can't do this without you and we AB absolutely wouldn't want to would you partner with us and pray for our protection our health our technology and especially for the listeners that we could join together partnering with God to bring the gospel to the ends of the Earth thank you and God bless you welcome back to sizzy Larson live today I'm talking with NFL quarterback Kirk Cousins kir before the break you were talking about how God has brought you through trials and how you've learned to depend and trust in God through those trials you know as an author you know it's one thing to land a book contract you know and your dream of being a published author Landing that first contract is is a dream come true but then it's a whole other thing you got to write the book and then it's got to sell and it's got to make an impact and I'm imagining on a much bigger scale it's the same with the NFL I don't watch college football people keep telling them I need to but I'm just I love of the NFL so I don't understand the draft process so you're in m at Michigan how does that work do they forgive me for what an idiotic question this is I just don't know the process but did they tell you you might be drafted or I mean how do you how does that work behind the scenes and how did that go for you when you were first drafted no it's actually a great question because I was at Michigan State I had already exceeded what I thought was possible in this football journey and I didn't really know where to go from here and I had a coach who didn't give out compliments all the time and so if he gave one you knew it was the real deal he wasn't just blowing smoke and he told me you need to seriously consider playing Beyond College you need to put your energies into developing your football skills here in college because the potential exists for you to play professionally and so that was when I first started to realize this has a chance I really you know focused on trying to make it and then as I got to my senior season my final season I had agents calling me calling my dad and I knew if they were calling us they thought they had a chance to represent us and and have a good business deal with us so those were all indications but you still don't know you have to stay healthy and you have to play well and we were able to do that and so one step just led to the next and we just took the next step you know God didn't show us four steps down the road he showed us the next step and we took that and then waited to see what the next one would be after that and well I would love to have known four or five steps down the road I never did get that from God so um we took the next step and the next step and the next step and then it led us to the NFL draft and and we were drafted to Washington which um was a big surp surprised at the time because they had drafted a quarterback with the second overall pick in the draft that same season so of 32 teams in the NFL I would have thought Washington to be the 32nd most likely team to pick me and so when they did I thought God's probably in this because it's that unlikely that I would also be drafted to Washington as a second quarterback to a team in the same draft so um sure enough God had a plan for us there I was a backup for the first two to three years which was best for me it was best for me to sit as you talked about if God had given me everything I wanted my career might have flamed out early so the fact that I was a backup was learning behind the scenes was a great thing for my development and then in my fourth season in Washington uh the doors opened uh the Seas parted if you will for me to be able to play and play well enough that I was able to extend my career and that was year four and I'm now going into year 133 so we're still finding a way come on I would love you to make a life application with the idea of being a backup quarterback but you always have to be ready you have to keep your skills sharp you actually have to be growing in agility and skill and knowing the game because if and when the guy ahead of you injures out you've got to be able to step up I mean most people don't have to live that way I feel like we should as Believers because God's always preparing us for a next place of Promise whether we know it or not but I feel like that's a a different physiology like you're keeping your physiology ready your brain your spirit ready as a Christian talk about what that was like for you and maybe make an application to us who follow Jesus yeah I think of the story my high school Bible teacher told me about uh a man whom God told to push against a large Boulder every day and to push against it again and again and again and and then Satan came to him and said you know you've been pushing against this Boulder for months it hasn't moved at all why would you keep pushing and the man agreed with that logic and so he stopped and the Lord came by one day and said' I noticed you stopped pushing that Boulder and he said' well it hadn't moved for months' and God said who said anything about the boulder needing to move you know did you notice how much bigger and stronger your shoulders are and your calves and your legs and how much more you can help other people in town because of your strength and your endurance and so this the story hit pretty quickly with me as a high schooler that God has plans that might be different than ours and he's preparing us for those plans with what he's asking us to do right now and while we may not see the ultimate outcome we have to trust by faith that God has a plan he knows what he's doing he's good and he's going to use these circumstances for our good for his glory and to tell a story through our lives and so I've had to recognize that Truth uh many times throughout my football journey and certainly being a backup quarterback was one of them but it's a lot easier for me to say it on a phone call than when you have to live it on a daily basis but that's what we as Christians are called to do yeah amen you know I'm thinking about you know what I said before my analogy just for me Landing my first book contract all those years ago and going I mean that was my big dream I just I got L that contract and then when I got it I was terrified like well well now I got to write book you know and I'm think it had to felt somewhat similar although you had a lot of practice with your your years prior play playing but you get up into the NFL it's a whole new league it's a whole new level it's so much more public um you're so gracious how did you navigate you know public opinion the public pressure with just not getting in your head too much and doing what you know you can do well I think I'm still navigating it and figuring it out but um certainly it is a big stage and at first I I realized boy I don't know if I'm cut out for this this might be too big for me and so you have those feelings of inadequacy but that's where I've had to realize that uh God is Sovereign and I have to Steward what he gives me but I don't need to own uh and so for much of my football journey I viewed my career too much as as it's my career and I own it and when you do that you do feel the pressure because the buck stops with you but I've started to realize that a healthier perspective is to be a steward of this football career realize God owns the football career he can do with it what he wants he's going to do with it what he wants I need a steward what he gives me and if he gives me a healthy season and great coaches and great teammates and a great opportunity I need to Steward that well but if he gives me a season ending injury I need to Steward that also but I don't need to to worry about the season ending injury because a steward doesn't worry about that an owner does so uh shifting that perspective from owner to Steward I think has really helped me handle all of the curveballs that professional football has thrown my way and really bigger than professional football that life will throw my way um but it is tempting all the time to view life as you're the owner when really we're just the steward man that helps you hand over the critics and the praise you know it's like talk to the talk to the source I'm not the source and uh you know I remember I I worked in Fitness for over a decade before I got into full-time Ministry so I'm very just love just love that world and I was watching the game where your your Achilles popped as soon as they zoomed in on the replay I'm like there it is I I know what that injury is and we were in just earnestly praying for you every single day I have to know for you what was that I mean you had to have known the second that your heel popped like that that's going on I stepped on all the time in the pocket in the games and so feeling a pain in the back you know people talk about when they pop their Achilles and pick up basketball or in another setting that they say who stepped on me because it's so foreign for them to be stepped on but as a as a as a quarterback in football cleats getting stepped on happens all the time and so I just assumed I had been stepped on one more time and um got up and I could not press my foot into the ground I couldn't as I walked I had no ability to press like I was on a gas pedal and I realized that's a different sensation than any other injury I've had but still didn't know what it meant and when I got to the sideline our foot and ankle surgeon had me lift up my foot and he put two fingers right on that Achilles area and could feel that it wasn't there and he said you you tore it completely and and obviously you're done for the season so he said a cart will be brought out from inside the stadium it'll take a couple minutes to get here just have a couple minutes to yourself and uh and then we we'll let you know when the cart gets here so I just laid there on a training table under a little blue tent and uh just had a moment there really just me and God to just once again accept that okay God you're the owner uh I wish you own differently than you are right now but I'm I'm not the owner I'm the Steward and so I'll Steward this the best I can but you're going to have to figure out from here where this goes not me and so in a lot of ways the pressure was off but it also felt like I was at a cliff or I was at the Red Sea where it's is he going to part it or if he's going to part it how is he going to part it so you have those questions and you live with those questions for months and and we're still sort of wondering where it goes from here but um we trust him for the next step and uh and I look back thankfully with 15 plus years on this football journey to go off of and to believe that God's a pretty good owner and I don't need to uh to do much more than just be a steward he'll handle the rest yeah you don't need to write a strongly worded letter although I wanted to I got to admit I'm tell you were playing so well and I'm like Lord I don't get this I know you're good but I don't get it uh but I I when I would pray for you I honestly would sense so strongly God's profound love and affection for you and his profound fatherly got this I've got him and I just would love to know as much as you're willing to share how he met you in those weeks and months that followed because I'm sure in some ways you had to feel some grief because you were on a huge role uh but what was how did you process that those days that followed yeah I would love to tell you that I was you know in a healthy place the whole time but I'd be the first one to say that you know I got up a lot of mornings early on was very frustrated and was very disappointed and was angry and um I think that's pretty normal but uh it just took time to recognize that you know this isn't changing and and there's life here ahead to go live and there's a lot out there to go get still and um I think God met me in that and and really blessed the rehab time with the Vikings the at the back half of last season and um you know there's processing some materials of what it means to to let go and I was reading a book by Katherine Marshall called Beyond ourselves that uh really spoke to me about couple chapters one was on relinquishment and what it means to truly relinquish things to God instead of hold them tightly and then another one on the power of helplessness uh and just what it means to be helpless and that while that at first glance appears to be a problem God many times uses our helplessness to you know really allow him to show up and and bless us such that he gets the glory that he deserves so rather than doing my helplessness as a problem I started viewing it as a blessing and as something God was Sovereign in and I felt that took a lot of the pressure off so good and again it goes back to what I love so much about God as a father is that on your grumpy days on your Happy Days on your starts and stops in that rehab process his affection is in full force and he's still for you still with you I mean he doesn't roll his eyes and breathe a heavy sigh and stomp off you know what I mean I just think that's so amazing that he lets us be in process when he knows it's a hard process so that's really powerful well Kirk when we come back I want to Pivot and talk about the quarterback series how you got involved with it what your experience was like sharing so much of yourself and your family NFL quarterback Kirk Cousins is my guest today and we will be right back welcome back to Suzy Larsson live today I'm talking with NFL quarterback Kirk Cousins hey if you missed the first part of the show be sure to catch the podcast and hear how Kirk went from a boy playing football on the playground to playing at Michigan to being a starting quarterback for the NFL uh I want to Pivot and talk about the quarterback series I watched it twice and I know before this series dropped just cuz I I follow you and I I read different things that people already knew before that series you're a good guy and that you're a hard worker but what I saw in feeds social media feeds so much after is I knew he was a good guy but he's actually a really great guy and I knew he worked hard I had no idea how disciplined he was and I was telling my hubby when you had that brain thing on your head I'm like I need me one of those I gotta get one of those things so I want to talk about your family in just a second but you got to talk about some of the disciplines and tell people what I'm talking about this nodes thing that they put on your brain to help you with focus and concent conentration yes I've been looking for an edge for years in all the different ways whether it be you know disciplined sleep a disciplined diet you know quarterback specific training there there are all kinds of different buckets you need to be developing to be the best quarterback you can be but one of them that was a little bit off the beaten path was this neuro feedback where they're able to track the electrical activity going on on the surface of your of your brain surface of your head and they can find the ideal electrical Act ity range for focus and for calm and so I'm able to train that with this feedback on the videos I watch and it enables my brain to sort of go to those optimal States more often and more naturally and in a job like mine where there's high pressure it's very frenetic and yet in that chaos I need to be calm and focused it became a very helpful tool to train that and I I think it does help in any area of Life anybody can benefit from it but certainly I saw the benefit as a as a quarterback and I do say it's one of the key pieces to my development as a quarterback is being able to do that neural feedback training and did I see this right it's been a while since I've seen the series were you would it be like you're watching a movie and if your mind wanders the screen Fades did I get that right that's right that's right so the the brain naturally wants a movie to play smoothly if the movie were to you know pause or skip or the sound cuts out or the screen shrinks or the screen green brightness dims the brain doesn't like that and so it quickly learns we need to behave a certain way to get a reward and that's really what it is it's just basic basic psychology that says that if you reward the brain it'll do what you're rewarding it for over and over again and in this case the the software rewards it for focus and calm and and being present wow uh talk about if you don't mind some of your other disciplines I remember reading after one of Tom Brady's Super Bowl wins you know a list of some of his disciplines and I just found it interesting he took a whole handful of supplements and he really the things that he didn't do are as important as the things he did do but anything that you can share about just your diet your exercise like what does a a work work week look like for you yes I I I do try to leave no stone unturned when it comes to preparation and so for me it it has been okay are there ways I can eat cleaner to try to reduce inflammation so that I feel better on the practice field and can recover better after games especially as I get older my sleep habits can I get to bed a little earlier not stay up as late you know in order to make sure I can get close to nine hours a night you know certainly saying noticing is a big part of being healthy because the minute you start hopping on airplanes and eating food in airports it's a lot harder to follow those sleep and diet habits if you're always saying yes to things so it is important to know what you're going to do and then also know what you're not going to do and protect certain times but does take discipline and we've been on that path now for a long time you know I think it's it's led to a lot of blessings and you know me as an athlete is kind of the only way I know to be and I would love to tell you that I can just show up and I'm that good but that's not the case for me for some guys it is and and they have great careers but for me it really does take the nostone unturned approach and trying everything to uh to be able to to hang in there with such great competition we have a doctor on he's one of my docs he's a functional medicine doctor we have him on every month and I asked him about football players you know the CTE the the concussions and even why some come out of football just almost impaired either mentally or physically and others kind of keep on going and and they have hardly any impairment that you can at least see or that they talk about and he said he he because he works with some professional athletes but he really boiled it down to inflammatory foods he said you know those who keep a Clean Diet he said he gave the example I thought this was so fascinating he works with this old couple 70 years old but they exercise they eat a Clean Diet they keep inflammation down they were T-boned in an accident and they walked away then another guy who was the husband of one of his patients so she worked hard on her health he thought it was all ridiculous but he drank big gulps and ate his food from the local gas station he was barely rear ended in a parking lot I mean it was just a bump and it sent a Cascade of inflammatory reaction in his body and all the systems went haywire and he got extremely sick and he says that's sort of the the distinction is that when there's a lot of inflammation and you're taking blows you're like in a car accident every week eenie said so guys who are in the prime of their life may it's seem like they're getting away with drinking a lot eating a lot of sugar but they're not going to farewell in the long run it's those who mind those checks and really treat their body well that can actually walk off the field and be and have a life after their football career you know yes I do believe the bill will come do eventually and um I believe making these healthy choices to the best you of your knowledge and I continue to learn more every year about better ways to do that but I do think you're just raising your minimums where you're giving yourself a better chance to to handle whatever life throws your way and so I'm trying to raise those minimums as best I can but I I agree with you inflammation is a really a silent killer if you will because there's just so much environmentally that comes at us that we have to sort of combat by having healthy disciplined lives to reduce as much inflammation as we can which goes back to self-control because there are some things you can do about some of the inputs with inflammation you know some things we can't help because of the toxic atmosphere but yeah we can draw some lines one more thing I'll say that you'll love that Dr Troy I says is don't let age be your cage I love that don't let age be your cage so and you're not so that's really cool well as a pro athlete as I get older I'll be 36 this next season age does start to be a cage that that I'll use that line now because I do want to play play as long as God allows but I I would like for that to be into my 40s and so uh I want to have habits that allow me to do that and and I want to be able to walk away from the game saying I could play longer if I wanted to you know my body can still do it I don't want the body to be the reason I have to walk away so if the don't let age be your cage is a very real thing for me and I'm trying to live that and hopefully be able to someday get to a place where I walk away from the game hopefully in my 40s but still feeling really good that's certainly the goal in the prayer yeah love that so much uh talk about doing the series the quarterback series were you hesitant going in where did you just get obviously got the green light from God go ahead and do it from what I've seen there's been an overwhelmingly positive response to you to it for you so how was that for you yeah it was a positive experience uh we didn't really have anything to hide if anything we thought it'd be a positive to be able to show people how we tick uh what matters to us we prayed you know because we knew that we wouldn't have necessarily the ability to edit the show entirely while we would have some say ultimately you know there were be going to be some edits that would that would supersede our input and so we just prayed God would you allow this show to not only reflect the truth of Our Lives but also your truth and point people to you and shine a light and we didn't know how that was going to happen but when we got to the end of seeing the Eight Episodes we realized that it happened you know God in one way or another allowed the allowed the show to point people to him and show people the role he plays in our life and so that was a major answer to prayer and and really the largest reason why we wanted to do it in the first place I was so grateful that they honored your faith you know there are times when you know secular Productions can put a bit of an Barb or a negative spin on someone with faith but they really I felt like to me they honored your story and I was so happy about that and they did I thought they did a they they certainly did did a great job of that and I thought it was only fitting because it was a natural uh picture of our lives and so it would be hard not to show it if you will yeah well i' would love to Pivot and talk about your family tell me if you don't mind how you met your your dear bride well we have a unique story we have a family friend who knew both of our moms but our families didn't know each other and so this family friend said that God put it on her heart that Julie and Kirk needed to meet and she told that to our moms and we thought that was UN unlikely because Julie was in Atlanta and I was in Michigan oh wow it seemed like it wasn't going to happen but this family friend said we have a big God and shortly thereafter um my school ended up being paired with her school I went to Michigan State she went to Georgia got paired up to play each other in a game and so this family friend said this is this is a sign God's God's going to have them meet here because our teams are playing each other and so that was what took place uh I I met her uh as a result of that game and um you know followed up with her started dating long distance and then uh got engaged and after about two years of dating got married and we've been married now 10 years and we've got two boys so as that family friend you know said we have a big God I would say that's very true and certainly true in the fact that Julie and I are together and it was interesting because it all started with this family friend saying the Lord put it on my heart or spoke to me that they need to meet and so I've often seen her and thanked her for listening to the voice of God because that's not an easy thing to do it takes time and discipline and and a quietness of spirit to hear what the Lord's saying and because she did that Julie and I have a great marriage and so uh I often am reminded of you know the importance of listening to the voice of God because of dramatic life change like who you marry is affected by and it's also a reminder to me of boy what are the times that I that I didn't create the time in the space to listen to the voice of God and then as a result what have I missed out on that God had for me that would have been such an enriching thing for my life and for others that because I didn't take the time to listen I forfeited being able to experience so we have quite a story of how we met and uh we'll be celebrating 10 years of marriage here in a in a few weeks well congratulations who who knew it first you were Julie that you guys were G to get married was it like love at first sight that's a good question I I think think I was the one who probably knew first uh she may debate that but I would say no I was I was pretty confident and if anything I had to tell myself was self-control to kind of slow getting married you know because I would have probably gotten married pretty quickly and I thought no wisdom would be to just you know take your time date a little longer to confirm but I was certainly someone who was ready ready to go I love that so much she is so precious getting to know her on the docu series was really awesome I mean I would imagine it takes a pretty special and Confident Woman to be married to an NFL player just because of the craziness of your schedule and I'd just love to know what do you love most about her well I I think she's first of all a great compliment to the way God's wired me I've learned so much about God through being married and through how he wires us and and what he wants marriage to be uh and and how it ought to function but I I just think her you know the NFL the pro football career is an adventure and it's a roller coaster ride and I assumed my spouse would be troubled by that and that it would be a real challenge to say hey we're moving and hey I'm going through this injury and I'm gonna be gone for this game and I'm getting booed and I figured spouses would take that really really hard but in a in a good way my wife views it as this exciting adventure and she doesn't she doesn't wear it as a weight around her neck she viewed it as a cool opportunity and so it's a blessing for me to come home from a stressful job and feel like my wife isn't carrying that stress she's wow just wants to be a support wants to be a help uh to that adventure and so um I love her perspective on what I do for a living and her support of what I do for a living and I do think it's a big reason why we've had some success because she's been such a great asset to me in this football Journey so good we're always better together I think that's so great and we need to take our last break but Kirk when we come back I want you to talk more about your Tuesdays and how you and Julie have set aside one day a week for each other and your family Kirk Cousins is my guest today and we will be right back Faith radio podcasts are produced by The Listener supported Ministry of Faith radio if you're interested in becoming a team member a donor to this ministry you can support the podcast anytime and donate at myfaithradio tocom welcome back to Susie Larsson live today I'm talking with NFL quarterback Kirk Cousins about faith family and football we've been talking about the quarterback docu series and what we learned about Kirk's life off the football field and about the disciplined approach he takes to being a pro alete in the quarterback series you talked about taking a day a week off and um I'm sure you got Flack for that but I want you to explain for those who have maybe seen the series what I'm talking about where you take a day off a week to be with your wife tell us about that yeah you know it's all started back in 2015 going into my fourth year we had listened to a sermon on the Sabbath and the point that really convicted me was that there are 10 Commandments in the Bible and for some reason in America culture today we seem to take nine of The Commandments very seriously we agree that we shouldn't you know lie and steal and commit adultery and I mean that's kind of common knowledge but for some reason taking a day off which was a commandment we seem to shrug our shoulders about and I thought no if we're going to follow nine of them we're going to follow 10 of them and so I looked at the schedule and thought how can we take one day off a week and seriously not work on that day and the NFL does have a day Tuesday which is a built-in off day and so I just said to coaches I'm going to take this seriously and take Tuesday truly off I'll do other things but I won't be doing football at first you know it was a little bit uneasy that the starting quarterback wouldn't be working seven days a week but uh I also found that it seemed to to bless my career it seemed to give me a chance to recharge and a chance to get some other things like family you know dealt with on on Tuesday such that I was a better football player on Wednesday through through Monday so I started that Rhythm played really well with that Rhythm and just felt you know what I'm going to stick with this this works you know it's interesting how if you do it the way God designed it it's interesting how it just seems to work well so culture pulls at you you know even in the offseason it's hard to find what's that day off going to be but I do think to the degree we can we can follow it it can really bless our lives and God put that in there not to limit us but to bless us and so I want to live into that blessing by obeying the Sabbath yeah my H used to have a Calvin Miller quote on his desk and it said Lord help me to remember I can make more bricks in six days than I can in seven yeah it's good I love that so much and you know I loved what Julie had said in the series that also for her because she has to absorb a lot if you're traveling around she's like knowing I get this day just balances me out for the rest of the week and I just know for me with all the output that I do again not even comparing to what you do physically mentally on the field but still when you get a break your cup fills back up your brain recharges your body recharges it just it just makes sense so I can only imagine to me Kirk I feel like that's part of what's factoring in to allow you to play long you know to allow you to do the long game and to stick with it because that that's the only way it's going to be sustainable you know I agree I think it's a habit that if practiced consistently can lead to some long-term benefits that are greater than we even realize you know another question about critics you know my one of my mentors says tells me about me she's like you're an upfront person with the behind the-scenes heart and that's true I'm I'm more of an introvert I'm not super great in crowds love Solitude I love one-on ones and and I'm a sensitive spirit so in this day of people's you know very public opinions without any filter you know it's something that I I've learning to sort through but do you Circle back to the idea of stewardship as far as how do you process that because you stay so gracious and humble and you're on a much much bigger stage and people are more passionate about football than almost anything that's you know a different conversation but I'm saying how do you process that and stay gracious well I think first of all this game keeps me humble you know I it's it's hard to win in this league it's hard to be successful it's physically demanding and so it it'd be difficult for me to really start to be prideful because this game has a way of testing me and humbling me over and over again so I think the nature of the challenge of the sport does keep me in in probably a a a healthy posture of humility but I I also think that you remind yourself that fans are why we're able to do what we do I mean they are entitled to their opinion and their support and their passion is what makes it such a special thing for us as players so that's good you really want to embrace that and say hey I love your opinion I love your passion even if I don't agree with with your opinion because it's a reflection of what makes our Sports so great so uh when you see it through that filter you can you can hear just about any boo because you you realize regardless of what you're hearing you're you're getting to live a dream that's such a great perspective and the knowledge that you're going home to a wife who's your steady you know who loves you and uh is walking with you and you've got a big God and a great support system that's that's fantastic I I found myself when the when the season ended and I was still rehabing this torn Achilles uh we went back to our my hometown in Michigan uh where we have a home and we put our kids in school there and I was rehabing and we were kind of in our our daily routine that was sort of different from the NFL because we weren't in Minnesota it wasn't the season we were just sort of engaged in quote unquote normal life and I looked up at Julie one day at lunch while boys who were at school and I was just taking stock of that and I said you know Julie if you remove football from the equation we have a really good life and I found that to be a really U really great feeling to recognize that yes football is a big part of my life it's how people associate you know what they associate me to but when you remove that I I'm I'm pretty happy with life pretty content I love my marriage my boys you know the experiences we have the the opportunity so anyways it was just a moment of contentment for me to realize that as bad as football may get at times there's still a great life on the outside of the football career because you haven't put all your eggs in one basket again you know I think um if football for maybe an athlete becomes its Idol they Idol and it's all their identity is attached to it that's it's not ever meant to sustain that so you're building a life you know around and you know in addition to football so that's powerful how you feel by the way with your rehab and how's that ailles feeling yeah I'm coming along it's uh it's certainly an injury that takes a while uh it's one thing to you know meet a few hurdles it's another thing to be full speed you know without anything holding you back so I'm still trying to get that final push where I am you know full speed with nothing holding me back but getting closer every day and just praying that the Lord would really create really strong healing so that not only I get back but that I I never look back if you and Ive forward as if it never happened that's been the prayer since since the injury so we're we're kind of getting to home stretch here in the rehab and excited to get it behind us well friends pray that way for Kirk you know I'm super interested in brain science and I think it's so interested you know on neurology even that how your brain responded to this trauma that your brain has to recover from it too and so you know that God would just bless you on in every front so that you as you say you know it's behind you and you're not looking back well this question we just got a few minutes left this question is from one of our producers Ryan Mitchell who I believe is going to be a sports cter one day he's amazing uh but he says when you're entering a new organization how do you step into the opportunity with confidence and authenticity without coming on too strong but definitely rising up to the challenge to be a leader yeah it's a great question as one I asked myself as I was road tripping down to Atlanta to get started because I actually reached out to a retired quarterback who switched teams late in his career and had great success uh in both places and I just said give me some counsel as to how to go about this and it was exactly what he counseled me to do was to uh certainly you know be the quarterback lead but also understand you haven't been there and you have a lot to learn and there's a way of doing things there that might be new to you and so to ask questions to take a backseat at times to listen is a really good thing especially early on and then as you get you know closer to the season or in the season and things have been defined more and you've had some time on task then you know you can assert yourself in in maybe ways you would wouldn't right away so that was good counsel and I've tried to uh to put that into practice here and it has been a lot there's been so much change both at the football building and away from football when you move there's no easy way to move I've learned so there's a lot of change a lot of new uh nothing's been easy but uh it's exciting and I do think we're in a great place and have a great opportunity and I'm excited to see what God wants to do here in the you know final chapter the Twilight years of this football journey to he's taken me on I joke with people that he's quote unquote running out of time and so it's be interesting to see what he wants to do here in the in the final home stretch well I'm officially become a Falcons fan now and I love that God brought you full circle to to Julie's family I mean she's given up a lot I mean you you both have you've it's cost you a lot but it's been a great adventure too but I just think it's an awesome thing that she's in her family's Hometown I got one last question before we wrap here Kirk and I asked this most every day as well what do you know about God now that you didn't maybe know as well five or 10 years ago I I would say five or 10 years ago I didn't quite realize just how much God desires to use the circumstances of our life to bring us closer to him to teach us more about him and to teach us more about ourselves such that we would change to become more like him and I I just think that God's going to find or know the area of your life that needs to change in order to be like him and he's going to allow circumstances whether it's you know who you marry whether it's what happens in your career whether it's an injury whether it's a move he's going to allow circumstances that are challenging to bring those deficiencies or those areas that are not like Christ to the surface so that you have to deal with them and in the long run you're going to end up being more like him and which will make you a a better person and a person who has the fruits of the spirit and operates with self-control like we talked about at the beginning and so I'm learning that that's not necessarily fun but it's good you know I think of the CS Lewis line you know where they said is is he safe talking about alen and they said safe who said anything about safe of course he isn't safe but he's good and so that that's been my experience the last five to 10 years that God takes you on his football Journey he's not interested in safe he's not interested in easy but he is good and he has a plan and he wants me to be more like him not just for some selfish reason but for my good and so I I I think I've learned that as I've gone through trials and had to be gritty and had to keep going and had to you know get back on the horse and realize that you know God's using this and he's in it and he has a purpose so uh it can be tough but it's worth it amen three things I pray for you when the Lord put you on my heart are these and it's in the scripture I don't remember the verse and I don't remember the transl ation it's only in one translation but it's that that that you would be under God's favor his power and his smile so that's what I'm going to continue to pray is that you would just experience and know and grow in his favor that you'd experience his power and that you'd sense his smile As you move into this next season of football and I know Kirk you've got so many people pulling on you so that you'd make time for us well it just means the world to me so thank you thank you dear brother for this time today oh grateful for your ministry and your show your classy lady classy family and grateful for you look forward to connecting up ahead Let's go Falcons all right that's right right God bless you Kirk thank you so much thanks so much Su bye see you that was NFL quarterback Kirk Cousins I think I like him even more now than I already did hey make sure you check out the podcast and my bonus conversation with sports broadcaster Ryan Mitchell hope you found some encouragement here today and we will meet you back here next time thank you for listening to this conversation from Susie Larsson live these conversations are available because of your support you can become a supporter now at myfaithradio