QB Regression at the Age of 32

“To be honest, I’m surprised sometimes he’s able to do it, with two kids and doing the football stuff,” said Holcomb, whose mother recommended him as a tennis partner to her fellow Michigan State alum. “I imagine he’s tired. But when he gets out there, he just says he loves to get out and play. It’s fun for him — a little break from everything.”

Last year Cousins picked up a tennis racket for the first time since middle school, in search of an activity that didn’t take him away from his two young sons as long as a round of golf or carry the injury risks that pickup basketball did.

Tennis became even more of an outlet during the 2020 offseason, when he could play with his brother Kyle in Florida, a coach he knew in Michigan, or Holcomb in Minnesota while staying within social distancing guidelines.


Learning the sport through thrice-weekly sessions, Cousins realized it transferred to his high-stakes work as a quarterback even more than he thought.

“No one ever told me that Pete Sampras, when he would warm up to serve, he started by throwing a football,” Cousins said. “It confirmed that, hey, maybe there is something here. If a tennis guy was using the football motion to warm up his serve, the serve could be a great way to, in a different way, keep your shoulder in shape for the football motion.”

A 40-minute tennis match would give Cousins the conditioning he sought in the same 6- to 8-second spurts he plays on a football field. Reacting to a drop shot, he said, is similar to when he drops back to pass, “the seas part and there’s an open A gap to run through to steal 5 yards.”

The ever-studious Cousins learned a tennis serve — as one of the few overhead motions in sports where an object stays in an athlete’s hand the whole time — can help ward off shoulder injuries by strengthening the muscles that aid in the deceleration phase of the movement.

“He asked me my opinion, and I didn’t think too much of it. I was like, ‘Yeah, that sounds good,’ ” said Cousins’ trainer, Joe Tofferi. “And the more I thought about it, I thought, ‘That’s such a genius idea by him.’ Kirk’s never going to be a Barry Sanders and get out and do seven or eight hours of speed and agility, but it never hurts to be more agile. If you look at the serve and the overhead, and what the core does, and what the hips do, it’s spot on, man, for what he needs.


“I’m kind of disappointed I never brought it to him first.”

Cousins, who turned 32 on Wednesday, said tennis “will be a pretty consistent part of my routine going forward,” and he’s starting to dream about what it could look like as a competitive outlet after his NFL career is over. His wildest wish is to put in a grass court near his house.

“I don’t know how I’m going to do that, and I don’t know what the logistics are like,” Cousins said. “I think there’s a reason you don’t see them anywhere, because they’re pretty hard to keep up. But I have a dream to somehow find a way to [do it]. That’s kind of a funny side goal of mine.”

Asked to scout himself as a tennis player, Cousins described himself as a “work in progress,” with the big serve and strong forehand of a typical American player but with some room to grow in other areas.

Cousins hit with a tennis pro in Michigan and asked for an evaluation.


“He said, ‘You’ve got great pace on your shots, you’ve got good pace on your serve, but there’s fine-tuning that has to happen. There’s a higher ceiling than where you are right now.’

“I have to remind myself, I’m doing it for the football benefits rather than just trying to be a great tennis player. I tell him, ‘I just want you to make me move, make it difficult on me, have me breathing heavy.’ I don’t need to learn all the spin shots. I just want to be physically put through the wringer.”

Cousins still does hourlong training sessions with Tofferi, but they’ve changed because of tennis. He’s doing fewer sprints and structured agility work, and is able to focus more on resistance training and maintenance work.

Tennis has improved Cousins’ mechanics on downfield throws, Tofferi said; he’s learned to engage his core and drive force into the ground, the way Aaron Rodgers throws or Rory McIlroy swings a golf club.

“I’ve been with him six or seven years, and his body just keeps getting better,” Tofferi said. “Other guys might be on the downfall, or starting to get the dad bod going. He had more of a dad bod coming out of college than he does now. It’s hard for me to come up with something as competitive and enjoyable as tennis.”