Former Vikings defender who tweeted 'Kirk Cousins is ass' is now back on the Vikings and plans to apologize

• Pro Bowl defensive end Everson Griffen is returning to the Minnesota Vikings.
• Griffen left the team in the 2019 offseason and later called Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins "ass."
• Now back in Minnesota, Griffen says he plans on apologizing to Cousins for the comment.

The newest member of the Minnesota Vikings is in for an awkward reunion with quarterback Kirk Cousins.

On Monday, the team announced the signing of veteran pass-rusher Everson Griffen, who spent the first decade of his career with the Vikings before leaving in the 2020 offseason.

Griffen was a force for the Vikings during his initial stint in Minnesota, with 74.5 sacks over 10 years, moving him to seventh on the all-time franchise list. He made four Pro Bowls along the way.

But while Griffen had plenty of good times in Minnesota, he also clearly had some frustrations, and those frustrations were aired in January of this year when he called Cousins "ass" on Twitter.

In a since-deleted series of tweets, Griffen didn't hold back against his once-former, now-again-current teammate.

"@Vikings, Kirk Cousins is ass. Thank you" Griffen wrote. "Ask ZIMMER if he wanted Kirk?????"

Griffen didn't keep the tweets up for long, and quickly apologized for the outburst on Twitter.

But even with his online apology, one might think that his tweets burned any bridge Griffen had back to Minnesota.

Clearly, that wasn't the case, with Griffen suiting up for the Vikings once again this year. Given that he will be sharing a locker room with Cousins once again, Griffen already has plans for an in-person apology.

"I haven't really talked to him yet, but I'm going to get around to doing that," Griffen told The Athletic after his reunion with the team. "Apologize to him, apologize to coach Zimmer, Rick (Spielman) about what I said. I take full ownership of that. I've still got to talk to Kirk and apologize to him about that."

Hopefully the two teammates can clear the air before Week 1 kicks off.