Julie Cousins posted three words on her Instagram Story on Tuesday, November 11. “Another adventure awaits…” Her husband Kirk had just been traded back to the Minnesota Vikings. The family was already on its way out of Las Vegas.
Less than three years after the Cousins family packed up and left Minnesota, they are going back.
Julie Cousins Celebrates Kirk’s Trade Back to the Vikings
Kirk, 38, is headed back to Minnesota. The Vikings acquired him from the Las Vegas Raiders on Tuesday for a 2027 third-round pick. He started all nine games for the Raiders during the 2026 season, after two seasons with the Atlanta Falcons.
Minnesota knows him well. Kirk played six seasons there, from 2018 to 2023, before signing with Atlanta in March 2024. Us Weekly reported that the Vikings went after him because he has outperformed expectations in Las Vegas this year.
Julie Cousins, 37, kept her caption short. Her husband’s new employer is in a hurry, and so, by the look of her Story, was the rest of the family.
One Last At Bat Before Minnesota
Kirk and Julie share two sons. Before anyone boarded anything, there was a little league playoff game to finish.
Julie shared about Turner’s last at bat in her Instagram Story. One hour before the family left for Minnesota, she wrote, one of their boys wanted a final at bat. She signed off with a thank-you to Las Vegas.
That small detail carries most of the story. A trade happens on paper in an afternoon. The kid still wants to finish his game.
What Kirk Posted About the Raiders
Kirk used his own Instagram Story on Tuesday to thank Raider Nation and send good wishes to Fernando Mendoza, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner who now takes over as the Raiders’ starting quarterback.
Gracious exits are easy to skip in the NFL. He did not skip it.
His new team needs him quickly. Minnesota won its first six games of the season, then dropped two straight amid quarterback trouble with Kyler Murray and Carson Wentz. Filling in for an injured Murray against the Buffalo Bills on Monday, November 9, Wentz completed eight passes for 81 yards and threw two interceptions. Kirk is expected to start when the Vikings visit the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, November 15.
Three Schools in One Year
Kirk has talked about this before. After the Falcons move in 2024, he told Us Weekly that the boys attended three different schools in a single year: one in Minnesota, one in Michigan after the season ended, and one in Atlanta. Their sons, he said, were handling it well.
He also admitted the moves were harder on him than on them. He described dropping the boys at new activities full of strangers and hesitating to get back in the car, while they told him they were fine.
Parents in football families tend to absorb the anxiety so the children do not have to. Kirk described exactly that. The kids adjust on their own timeline, and the adult in the parking lot is the one still sitting there.
Julie Cousins’ post reads like the other half of that arrangement. Somebody in the house has to frame each move as an adventure rather than an upheaval, and she chose her words before the plane took off. Her sons will hear about the trade the way their parents describe it.
Neither Kirk nor Julie has said where the boys will go to school this time, or how long the family expects to stay. Sunday in Green Bay comes first.
Sources: Us Weekly
