Kirk Cousins had one of the finest nights of his football life on Thursday, throwing for an Atlanta Falcons-record 509 yards in a walk-off 36-30 comeback victory over the rival Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The veteran quarterback also ingratiated himself with the city and locker room, recreating his iconic “You like that!” holler in the postgame locker room, and dubbing “Swag Surfin” his new go-to song for late-game motivation.
Not long after firing a 45-yard game-winning touchdown to KhaDarel Hodge in overtime, Cousins could be seen directing the roaring Mercedes-Benz Stadium crowd in a mass celebration, with “Swag Surfin” — the bop from Atlanta-area Fast Life Yungstaz that first went viral in 2009 — blasting over the speakers.
Cousins explained afterward that the hip-hop anthem has quickly become a personal favorite.
“I love that ‘Swag Surf’ song in the fourth quarter,” he told NFL Media. “It gets me going.”
How did he learn to lead the crowd’s “surf” postgame?
“I was taught this week by Taylor Rooks, with Amazon,” he told reporters afterward. “I got to sit down with her, and she’s from Atlanta, and she taught me how to do it. The key is when the beat drops. It kind of initially gets going, gets everybody in the stadium aware of it, but when the beat drops, that’s when it really gets going. It’s good energy. There’s a lot of good songs they play throughout the game. Good environment. But that one? That one does it for me.”
And Cousins did it for his teammates, delivering a career-high passing total on the night Falcons great Matt Ryan was officially inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor. Not only that, but he treated the club to a special greeting upon arriving in the locker room after the fact.
“You like that!” he screamed, eliciting a roar of support from his fellow players.
The rallying cry comes nine years after Cousins first went viral for “You like that!” Written off as a subpar starter for Washington’s NFL team in place of the injured Robert Griffin III back in 2015, Cousins famously marched his squad back from down 24-0 to pull out an improbable 31-30 win over … the Buccaneers. Walking past the media on his way to the locker room, the then-fourth-year quarterback unleashed his competitive spirit, providing a first look at Cousins’ fiery alter ego.
