Vikings QB Kirk Cousins wears Christian Darrisaw's chain home from London

MINNEAPOLIS - The Minnesota Vikings made the trip home safely from London, and the players definitely enjoyed themselves after leaving with a 28-25 win over the New Orleans Saints at Tottenham Hotspur.

Not long after the team arrived back in Minnesota, video surfaced on social media of Kirk Cousins wearing Christian Darrisaw’s diamond chain on the ride home. Cousins said Wednesday at TCO Performance Center it’s the first time Cousins has ever worn a chain like that.

 "I borrowed his chain on the flight, I don’t know if you guys saw that. That was CD’s chain, I wore his chain for a little bit, Kris Boyd put that on me. It was tempting, I had never actually put a chain on, so that was my first experience of what that feels like and honestly, it was very empowering. It felt pretty good to have that chain on," Cousins said. "His is CD on the chain and it spins. What would I do? I have no idea, certainly an offseason project potentially."

"That’s Kirk, that’s what you get behind the scenes and y’all don’t see him behind the scenes a lot. Y’all just get the internet version," running back Dalvin Cook said.

Part of the joke there was that Darrisaw was loudly snoring on the flight to London. Loud enough that Za’Darius Smith thought the noise was the plane itself. Cousins was sitting directly in front of him on the plane and barely slept on the plane.

"He was sawing logs and it was hard for me to sleep. We landed in London and Za’Darius goes, ‘CD I thought that was the plane, that was you.’ I said CD I’m one seat away from you on the plane, I barely slept," Cousins said. "On the way back, he somehow did a lot better and Dalvin was congratulating him."

Cook couldn’t believe how loud Darrisaw was snoring on the flight to London, but congratulated him for being quiet on the ride home.

"I gave him his flowers on the way back. I thought it was a prank to be honest. They talking about like that was CD? I was like no way possible," Cook said. "I think he changed the way he laid down, I think he slept on his side and not on his back so that made everything better for us."

Darrisaw is quietly having a promising season on the offensive line as the Vikings are off to a 3-1 start, atop the NFC North Division with the Chicago Bears coming to Minneapolis this weekend. The former Virginia Tech standout was the team’s 2021 first round draft pick.

Cousins calls him the "Crime Dog," because of his initials. Sharing the nickname with former baseball star Fred McGriff, who retired from Major League Baseball in 2004. Cousins gave him that nickname when he learned Darrisaw played first base for his little league team at 10 years old.

Darrisaw, just 23 years old, had never heard of McGriff.

"They put up a stat in the stadium last year, it just said when he was 10 years old, he played first base for his little league baseball team. I was like that’s the best stat we could get on Christian Darrisaw? I’ve asked if they could leave that up every year for warm-ups, if he goes to Pro Bowl after Pro Bowl," Cousins said. "The crime dog, Fred McGriff, was a first baseman. Same initials, he had no idea who Fred McGriff was, but I taught him."

The Vikings are 3-1, and despite two of the wins not being pretty, they're having fun with a successful start to the season.