Everyone knew the Las Vegas Raiders would take Fernando Mendoza, the Heisman-winning quarterback fresh off leading Indiana to the national title, with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. And as soon as that became common knowledge, I began rooting for the Raiders to sign Cousins, 37, to mentor Mendoza. They were designed in the same lab, 22 years apart, from a football and personality perspective.
After his release from the Atlanta Falcons, the Raiders signed Cousins on April 6, and roughly three weeks later, they drafted Mendoza to actualize the quarterback room of content creators’ dreams.
Who will start Week 1, Cousins or Mendoza? Will the Raiders be any good next season? Can Mendoza develop into the franchise quarterback the Raiders have lacked for decades? I have no idea, and I don’t care. I’m ready to declare the Cousins-Mendoza experiment a rousing success.
“Kirko Chainz” and “The Nandolorian” co-starred in the Raiders’ schedule release video filmed in the image of “Step Brothers.” Cousins and Mendoza sharing the screen wasn’t a one-off, as they tried to grasp the concept of “Love Island” in a video posted Monday, otherwise known as “Love Island USA” Eve. The Instagram video is appropriately titled, “30 seconds of Kirk Cousins trying to understand ‘Love Island.'”
“What is the premise of the reality show?” a confounded Cousins says while holding a smoothie. Then Mendoza joins Cousins and earnestly asks, “How do you win ‘Love Island’? Just find true love or something?” Cousins confirms he’s never seen the global phenomenon.
It only gets better from there:
For the uninitiated, “Love Island” premiered in the UK in July 2015, and it became so popular that Australian and United States spinoffs premiered in 2018 and 2019, respectively. It flipped the reality dating TV genre on its head.
A horde of beautiful young adults occupies a villa while cameras film constantly. (The Raiders would do well to install a similar camera in the quarterback room.) There are challenges. There are temptations. There are unholy levels of drama and a surprising amount of legitimate romance. At the end of every week, there is a recoupling, and unselected singles are kicked off the island. That goes on for six to eight weeks until the general public votes for the winning couple.
If Cousins can memorize his “computation notebooks,” which he detailed on Netflix’s “Quarterback,” surely he can comprehend the inner workings of “Love Island” before “Love Island USA” premieres Tuesday on Peacock.
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