Sunday's Game in Miami is a 'Special' Homecoming For Vikings' Dalvin Cook
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Finally, in his sixth NFL season, Dalvin Cook gets to go home and play in front of his family and friends.
The 4-1 Vikings are headed to Miami this weekend to take on the 3-2 Dolphins in a battle of first-year head coaches. It's an important game for both teams, but it'll mean a little extra for Cook, who grew up in Miami and starred at Miami Central High School.
"It's gon' be fun," the Vikings' star running back said on Wednesday. "I'mma have a lot of supporters down in my hometown. It's always good getting back into some warm weather."
Cook is one of the most dominant Miami high school football players of this century. He racked up nearly 2,000 yards and 34 touchdowns as a senior — also intercepting three passes on defense — as he led Central to a state championship. Cook was named Mr. Football in Florida that year and was a five-star recruit as one of the top running backs in the country.
After initially committing to Clemson and then Florida, he flipped to Florida State and rewrote the record books in his three seasons as a Seminole. Cook put up absurd numbers in his sophomore and junior seasons, racking up over 4,000 total yards and 40 touchdowns. Off-the-field concerns and a few injuries caused him to drop to the second round in the 2017 NFL Draft, where the Vikings selected him with the 41st overall pick.
The rest, as they say, is history. Cook overcame early-career injury issues to become one of the NFL's best running backs, signing a five-year, $63 million extension in 2020 and making the Pro Bowl in each of the last three seasons.
Cook goes back to Miami every offseason to train and spend time with family. But with the Vikings playing in Miami for the first time since 2014, this will be his first chance to play in an NFL game in his home city.
"This is what I dreamed about, this is a kid's dream, just living in it, trying to take advantage of the moment," Cook said. "If you know me, I just like to have fun. So I try to enjoy the moment, man, because you don't get these back. We only play Miami every so many years, so gotta take advantage of these type of games."
Miami means a lot to Cook. It's where he's from and where most of his family still resides. He relishes opportunities to give back to the community and the children in Miami, something he's done during his college and NFL career.
"Growing up in Miami, it's always been about just having the opportunity of getting out of Miami," Cook said. "If you really from Miami, you really don't leave Miami. That's just how it is. Just having the opportunity for me to have a bigger platform, to be in the NFL, and to show kids down in Miami there's something bigger than just the inner city in Miami, the projects and the down areas. It's bigger pictures out here. You can go be a star NFL player, you can go get a scholarship in college. You can go do all those things if you put your mind to it. I'm just one of those persons that God gave an opportunity to show the kids that it can be done."
Whenever Cook is back during the summer, he makes sure to stop by his high school and the local parks. He knows how much it means to the kids in the area because he used to be one of them.
"It's kind of exciting when I go back home just to see the smiles on the kids' faces back at my high school," he said. "When I go back to the parks, everything, it just makes my day every time I go and see those kids like 'Yo Dalvin,' you know what I'm saying. I was one of those kids that when I seen whoever it was, I was the same way. So I just try to give those kids a brighter day."
Cook expects to have a big group of family and friends in attendance on Sunday. And what makes the moment even cooler for him is that he'll be back in Miami wearing the No. 4 jersey again. He switched to that number, which means a lot to him, this offseason. It's the number he wore all throughout high school and college, one that was passed down from his older brother to him to his younger brother, Bills rookie RB James Cook. Up until this season, he wore 33 because of the NFL's jersey number rules.
"Yeah that's special right there," he said. "Back in some old feels, some old emotions. Like I said, it's gon' be fun. Everything is just right, the environment's going to be right."
Cook has plenty of familiarity playing at the Dolphins' Hard Rock Stadium. He played in some big games at that venue in both high school and in college.
For whatever reason, Cook has always played well in Florida against Florida teams. Whether it was Miami, Florida, or South Florida, he had some of his biggest collegiate games in FSU's intra-state rivalries.
Cook set his career high (at the time) in rushing in the Vikings' last meeting with the Dolphins, a blowout victory at U.S. Bank Stadium in 2018. He's only played in Florida once in his NFL career, going over 100 yards with a touchdown in a 2020 Vikings loss to the Buccaneers.
Cook pointed out on Wednesday that he's never lost to Miami. He went 3-0 in college against the Hurricanes and is 1-0 against the Dolphins. He'd like to keep it that way.
"I'm trying to keep that up, keep that lil streak goin' in Florida," he said. "Just gotta have a great week of preparation with the team and we gotta go play some good football."
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