Kirk Cousins lists his hometown as Holland, Mich., so it would be natural to assume that the Minnesota Vikings quarterback grew up a fan of the Detroit Lions, whom the Vikings played on Nov. 4.

Although the Lions were on TV in Michigan and most of the NFL fans in Holland were Detroit fans, according to Cousins, it is actually this week that Cousins will get to face the favorite team of his childhood. On Sunday night, Cousins, who was born in Barrington, Ill., will face the Chicago Bears for the first time since the $84 million quarterback joined the Vikings.

“I remember when we left [Illinois for Michigan], I said, ‘Dad, does this mean we have to become Lions and Pistons and fans of the state of Michigan and Detroit?’ He said, ‘Kirk, you can take the boy out of Chicago. You can’t take Chicago out of the boy,’” Cousins said. “We stayed Chicago sports fans when we moved to Michigan, and where we were in the state was actually probably closer to Chicago than Detroit anyway, so we could justify it that way as well. Unfortunately, right when we moved, the Pistons won the championship, so I had to hear it from all my friends. Naturally, all those teams were on TV, so I saw a lot of the Lions through the years.”

Although this will be Cousins’ first matchup against the Bears as part of an NFC North rivalry, he has played Chicago twice before in his career and helped lead his Washington Redskins to two victories. In those two meetings, he completed 70 percent of his passes for 570 yards, two touchdowns, one interception and a 104.2 rating.

Some of Cousins’ early memories of watching the Bears involved some of the Vikings’ most productive playmakers.

“I remember watching Cris Carter and Randy Moss in ’98. They were so fun to watch with Randall Cunningham,” Cousins said. “I certainly watched [Brett] Favre.”

The Favre that Cousins watched in his formative years was of the Packers vintage. But he also has memories of his childhood Bears, most of which didn’t involve prolific quarterbacks.

“I remember the year in 2001 [when] they went 13-3. Jim Miller was the quarterback. They had a bunch of tight games that they won,” he said. “I remember the ’06 year when they went to the Super Bowl. Rex Grossman was the quarterback and had a lot of great wins that year as well. Those are two years I remember watching and really enjoying because the team I was rooting for was winning.”

These days, Cousins is part of the NFC North, not just watching it. Although he has only played two division games as a member of the North – a win against Detroit and a tie in Green Bay – he has historically performed well against the division. Overall against NFC North teams, he is 5-2-1, completing 70 percent of his passes with 2,424 yards, 14 touchdown, four interceptions and a 107.7 rating.

In addition to being 2-0 against the Bears, he is 1-1 against the Lions and 1-0-1 against the Packers.

“It’s a good division. I think anybody can win it. I think it’s filled with good quarterback play. It’s filled with good defenses with pass rushers. It’s the way I envisioned the NFC North being,” Cousins said. “I think the margin for error is very small in most all divisions and I think our division is no different. I’m sure it could come down to the last couple weeks of the season.”

His game Sunday night against Chicago (6-3) will be for the NFC North lead. A Vikings (5-3-1) win would give them a half-game lead over the Bears with that head-to-head advantage until they meet again in the season finale. A loss would give the Bears a 1½-game lead over the Vikings. The Green Bay Packers are 4-4 and play on Thursday night and the Lions are fading quickly at 3-6.

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In the first half of the season, the Vikings had only one NFC North game, their tie at Green Bay. Since they beat the Lions before the bye, the Vikings will now have four division games in their final seven contests, a stretch that will not only determine their hopes to defend the division title they won last year but potentially decide their playoff aspirations.

“It is a unique schedule this far,” Cousins said before the Lions game. “And every year when the schedule comes out in the spring you look at it from how many road games do we have at night, how many home games do we have a night, do we have a weird schedule of a Thursday game from a Sunday game traveling-wise? You always look at those logistics. Schedules can be different. They’re not all created all equally, but I guess it gives us a great opportunity here in the second half of the season to have a lot to play for.”