What Clean-Cut Raiders QB Kirk Cousins Does for Fun on a Night Out in Vegas

The joke writes itself, and the show went ahead and told it: Kirk Cousins and rookie Fernando Mendoza make the perfect quarterback duo for Las Vegas precisely because they are the anti-Vegas. No leather pants, no three buttons undone, no chains. So what does a clean-cut night out actually look like for the Raiders quarterback? Cousins was happy to spoil the mystery.

The answer leans more residency than rooftop. "There's a lot of good shows," Cousins said, and he reeled off a wish list that would make a tour bus proud. He is excited for the Backstreet Boys at the Sphere, planning to go on an off day in training camp, wear all white, and do the whole deal. Donny Osmond is on the docket too, a nod to his mom playing Osmond for him growing up. Add a Cirque show, of which Vegas offers about a half-dozen, and golf whenever he gets the time, and you have a fairly wholesome itinerary.

Cousins did learn one logistical lesson the hard way. He went down to the Strip during minicamp on a light Monday and tried to walk around, only to discover the city is not built for it. "They don't really want you to leave the casino you're at," he said, realizing that parking and strolling is not the move it might have been when he lived in Washington, D.C. or Minnesota. He is still figuring it out, but he likes the place. "It's a cool place."

There is the small matter of the heat. Cousins admitted he has never practiced in 115 degrees and suspects that is coming. He took some comfort in the dry heat, figuring it might save ten or fifteen degrees, but he has been warned that training camp in September can get rough. The show noted that teams have historically practiced at the crack of dawn, around 7 a.m., to beat the worst of it.

The bit nearly built itself when the conversation turned to whether he and his wife Julie might take Mendoza to the Backstreet Boys. Cousins extended the invitation, then offered a telling observation about life as the oldest guy in the room. He connects more easily with the coaches than the players when it comes to movie quotes and music, because the coaches grew up in his era. Bring up a movie he loved in 1995 and his teammates cannot quote it back to him.

Still, if Mendoza wants to come, he is welcome to tag along, and Cousins clearly understood the content value. When the show pitched it as a great bit for the Raiders social team, Cousins played along, acknowledging that NFL news in June and July is thin and everyone is hunting for content. "I'll try to give you what I can," he said. The show's response was quick: they were already aggregating the interview as they spoke.