Welcome to the Tuesday edition of The Cooler, where I know a thing or two about overreactions. Let's get to it:
*As the quarterback of a team that underachieved in 2018 even though he put up very good numbers, and as the owner of an $84 million guaranteed contract, Kirk Cousins has become one of the most polarizing figure in Minnesota sports.
It comes with the territory, the position and the contract. The torch was passed nicely from Joe Mauer after he retired, and the only reason I couched the last paragraph with "one of" is that Andrew Wiggins might want a word with me otherwise.
As such, there is going to be a general level of awfulness associated with Cousins' social media accounts. It's an unfortunate reality, but people are jerks on the internet — and they're even bigger jerks when a team with Super Bowl hopes goes 8-7-1 and misses the playoffs.
And so you get things like Cousins posting a picture of he and his wife, Julie, on Instagram with the most benign caption ever … followed by the comment "you stole 84 million bucks."
That brings us to Monday evening, when Cousins decided to hop on the Twitter machine and make a casual observation about the weather: "In 2010, I was mad at @KingJames for leaving Cleveland…but I've been in Miami for a total of 5 min and now I totally understand." Some folks understood that, yeah, it's nicer in Miami in mid-February than it is in Minnesota (or Cleveland). Others? They took it as a sign that Cousins wants out of Minnesota and/or wants to pull a LeBron and take his talents elsewhere.
Cousins responded with a "boy, that escalated quickly" gif from Anchorman, which is very on-brand for Kirk.
To borrow another line from the movie, Cousins might want to lay low for a while when it comes to social media. It seems he's in a no-win situation.
*In case you missed it, NBC's Pierre McGuire came uncomfortably close to getting smoked in the head by a puck in a game Monday. The slow-motion video is as terrifying as it is mesmerizing. *Manny Machado reportedly has agreed to a 10-year, $300 million deal with the Padres. More like money Machado, amirite?
*Antonio Brown and the Steelers are headed for a peaceful breakup, at least according to the wide receiver. *The Wild has won just once in its last nine games. Anaheim has won just four times in its last 24 games. This is the classic movable object vs. stoppable force at Xcel Energy Center on Tuesday night.
