Last season was all about Kirko Chainz after road victories. This year, Creed might be saving the Vikings' season.
After a much-needed win over the Bears in Chicago, Cousins said Garrett Bradbury made sure Higher was played before the game. Inspiration was drawn from the Texas Rangers, who have embraced Creed's music on the way to the World Series.
On Monday, the Vikings ran it back. And it worked again, as they pulled off an upset over the 49ers in primetime for their first home win of the year.
"I gotta say it, Creed," Cousins said after the game. "I'm getting my ankles taped pre-game because I try to get them taped as late as possible, and I'm sitting there on the table, and suddenly (Higher) comes on. And Garrett Bradbury is doing some body work next to me and he goes, 'Forget this, I gotta go enjoy this with the boys.' So he gets up and goes in the locker room, I get my ankles taped and we go in, and it was really good morale.
"Then we go to pray in the corner of the locker room with any guys that want to pray, and we go, prayer over here, and so we had to turn the Creed off. And Harrison Smith made a great point. He said, 'Guys, this is the prayer.' I thought, that's pretty good. So, yeah, we'll keep playing. They keep playing Higher, and I'm going, Creed has a lot of hits. They got a good catalog. They don't have to only play Higher, but they're taking us higher, so we'll take it."
Cousins is a big-time Creed fan who once tried to book lead singer Scott Stapp to play a private concert. Now he's got this wave spreading through the Vikings' locker room.
A couple signs it's catching on: ESPN's Monday Night Football broadcast played Creed as they were heading to commercial at one point, and the Vikings also loaded it up in the U.S. Bank Stadium speakers later on.
It feels like a tradition that's going to continue for as long as the Vikings keep winning.
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