Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins may have just qualified for the Covidiots’ Hall of Fame.
In a podcast posted by The Ringer on Wednesday, the NFL player suggested that masks were useless, shrugged off the danger of the coronavirus by saying “If I die, I die,” and proclaimed he was taking a “survival of the fittest” approach in the pandemic.
Podcast host Kyle Brandt asked Cousins: “If 1 is the person who says, ‘Masks are stupid, you’re all a bunch of lemmings,’ and 10 is, ‘I’m not leaving my master bathroom for the next 10 years,’ where do you land?”
The ninth-year pro replied, per USA Today: “I’m not gonna call anybody stupid, for the trouble it would get me in, but I’m about a .000001.” (See that portion of the interview at the 12:50 mark.)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and major infectious disease experts urge mask-wearing to curb the spread of COVID-19, which has sickened more than 6 million people in the U.S. and killed more than 184,000. Experts say wearing a mask is more about protecting others than protecting yourself.
Cousins, who did indicate that he is adhering to team mask protocols out of respect for his teammates, elaborated:
I want to respect other people’s concerns, but for me personally, if you’re just talking no one else can get the virus, what is your concern if you could get it? I would say I’m gonna go about my daily life. If I get it, I’m gonna ride it out. I’m gonna let nature do its course. Survival-of-the-fittest kind of approach. And just say, if it knocks me out, it knocks me out. I’m going to be OK. You know, even if I die. If I die, I die. I kind of have peace about that.
“So that’s really where I fall on it, so my opinion on wearing a mask is really about being respectful to other people,” he added, per the New York Post. “It really has nothing to do with my own personal thoughts.”
Cousins has thrown for 24,107 yards and 155 touchdowns in eight seasons.
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