The Big Chicken: Kirk Cousins sees Falcons as his Shaq-Heat ‘final stop’

What happens when you combine The Big Aristotle with Kirko Chainz? It sounds like a big bucket of some KFC deliciousness you can pick up at The Big Chicken in Marietta. Yes, it is a place. Yes, Kirk Cousins is the new franchise quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons. And yes, Cousins just went on The Big Podcast with none other than Shaq Diesel himself, the absolutely magnificent Shaquille O'Neal.

Both professional athletes have spent quite a lot of time in Atlanta. O'Neal works for Turner, which is based in Midtown. Cousins' wife Julie hails from the suburbs outside I-285. She also went to Georgia, and her parents still call Metro Atlanta home. While there may have been a time when he wanted to retire with the Minnesota Vikings, that was not in the cards for Cap'n Kirk. He is just happy to be home.

Cousins said to O'Neal he wants this to be his final stop, like it should have been for Shaq in Miami.

"I want this to be my final stop. I don't wanna do the deal -- no offense, but I don't wanna go play for the Suns and Celtics at the end. I wanna finish with the Heat, if you will, and be done."

He brings up a great point that his two sons are going to remember him playing for the Falcons now.

"My boys are 6 and 5. They won't remember that I played in Washington. They will barely remember I played in Minnesota. They're gonna remember I played for the Falcons. And I want those to be good memories. So I feel like this is the stretch I wanna finish strong. People remember how you finish more than you start."

Check out the entire interview between Cousins and O'Neal over on the podcast's YouTube channel.

To be living in a town where nobody besides me apparently is from, it is a good place to call home.

Kirk Cousins wants his Atlanta Falcons run to be like Shaq's Miami Heat

For as down as the Dirty Birds have been the last five or so years, Cousins' arrival in Flowery Branch has brought immediate credibility to a woebegone NFC South franchise in dire need of it. Atlanta did make the playoffs in 2017, but the painful memories of 28-3 still sting in this city, even though the Atlanta Braves, Georgia Bulldogs and Atlanta United FC have all won championships after that game.

Not to compare apples to oranges, but Cousins' tenure with Washington and Minnesota kind of loosely aligns with O'Neal's time in Orlando and Los Angeles in some capacity. Yes, O'Neal won three championships in a row playing alongside Kobe Bryant on the Lakers, but Minnesota is where Cousins truly became a star. O'Neal won his fourth ring playing in Miami with a young Dwyane Wade.

Now with the Falcons, Cousins joins an offense that prominently features Drake London at wide receiver, Kyle Pitts at tight end and Bijan Robinson in the backfield. Behind an underrated offensive line, Cousins will have plenty of opportunities to distribute the ball, as well as to other great players such as fellow ATL newcomer Darnell Mooney and third-year pro Tyler Allgeier out of BYU.

Overall, I think Cousins fully recognizes the opportunities ahead of him in Atlanta, not too dissimilarly to the business ventures O'Neal has taken advantage of in the capital city of Georgia. If Cousins were to lead Atlanta to a Super Bowl, he becomes a legend in The ATL. Should he get this team back to being high-end competitive, then he will have closed out a Hall of Very Good career on his own terms.

For the first time since 2016, the Falcons seem to finally have everyone pulling in the same direction.