National Football League

Kirk Cousins (2017 free agent) shouts 'how you like me now?' at Redskins GM after win

Published Dec. 9, 2016 1:04 p.m. ET

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Chris Chase

Kirk Cousins' latest one-liner may be his greatest, and most lucrative, work yet.

On the heels of last week's "oooooooh weeeeee!"which was the follow-up to his famous rhetorical 2015 shout, "you like that," the Washington Redskins quarterback was yelling "how you like me now?" while celebrating on the field following a huge, thrilling Redskins victory over the Green Bay Packers in what might have been the best game of his NFL career (21/30, 375 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT).

Though last year's "you like that" had a better ring and the benefit of freshness, Cousins was just saying it to a random Washington D.C. sportscaster en route to the locker room. "Oooooooh weeeeee" was merely a repeated refrain copped from safety Quinton Dunbar, who himself took it from a Young M.A. song. This one though? This one was pointed in its delivery (or just happened to push the limits of mathematical randomness) as Cousins was saying it in the face (and ear and top of the head) of Scot McCloughan, the Redskins general manager who just so happens to be the guy who will decide whether the free-agent Cousins gets another franchise tag in 2017, signs in Washington for somewhere close to nine figures or goes elsewhere for the same type of money.

McCloughan didn't give Cousins that extension in the offseason, waiting to see if the fifth-year veteran could repeat his 2015 successes in 2016. Cousins took the franchise tag without complaint (it's worth about $20 million, so don't cry for him) and has spent the first 10 games of the season showing the Redskins that they might have wanted to lock him up when they could.

The moment was all in good fun and not at all confrontational. Both were thrilled, they embraced, McCloughan kept repeating "good stuff" and Cousins responded "that's right." But there was an underlying, unspoken message through the whole 10-second affair: Kirk Cousin's contract negotiations just began in earnest. And he already has the upper-hand.

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