Viktor
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- Mar 19, 2019
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Rudolph referenced Adam Thielen’s 43-yard catch from Kirk Cousins, “an absolute dime,” that put Minnesota at the 2-yard line and set up the touchdown catch by Rudolph that advanced the Vikings to the upcoming Divisional round game.
The Vikings tight end was glad that fans saw the postgame video of him and Cousins receiving the game balls. But not for the reason one might expect. Rather, he was glad because “the people outside our locker room got to catch a glimpse of how the players inside the locker room feel about Kirk.”
That’s our guy, you know? And he’s been our guy. And I think we’ve all felt a little weird about just the nature of how our team gets covered: where, if the team loses, then no matter who’s to blame, or who played poorly, or who played well — that L gets hung right on Kirk.
The Seahawks game from a few Monday nights ago is a perfect example. Kirk went toe-to-toe with Russell [Wilson] in that game, truly punch for punch, and it’s tough to say who played better. But then their team made one more play than ours at the end, totally out of Kirk’s control ... and now suddenly it’s, “Kirk can’t hang”? Of course it’s not. Which I guess is just my way of saying, look — this stuff with Kirk, it’s always been silly. But that dude is a star. And last weekend against the Saints, that wasn’t him proving it. That was just everyone outside of our locker room finally recognizing it. So yeah, you know, we were a little jacked.
Rudolph expressed his disappointment in the Vikings 2018 campaign, which may have lowered outside expectations on a Minnesota that advanced to the NFC Championship two years ago.
But as the Vikings showed in New Orleans, they embrace the underdog role.
So when this season rolled around, and no one really expected for us to be much of a factor ... I mean, yeah, trust me, we definitely noticed. And I think we kind of relished being in that spot.
And while the idea of us being here now might be a surprise to a few experts? It’s not a surprise to any of us. We believe we belong — and that’s a belief that’s only getting more and more powerful.
To view Rudolph’s feature in its entirety, click here.