Riley Cooper Is An Idiot
Posted: July 31st, 2013 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 128 Comments »I’m sure most of you have seen this by now, but in case you haven’t…Riley Cooper had an angry, racist tirade at the Kenny Chesney concert in early June. And it got recorded. Here’s the video.
Oh boy.
Cooper went on Twitter to apologize tonight.
I am so ashamed and disgusted with myself. I want to apologize. I have been offensive. I have apologized to my coach, Jeffrey Lurie, and
— Riley Cooper (@RileyCooper_14) July 31, 2013
Howie roseman and to my teammates. I owe an apology to the fans and to this community. I am so ashamed, but there are no excuses. What I did
— Riley Cooper (@RileyCooper_14) July 31, 2013
Was wrong and I will accept the consequences.
— Riley Cooper (@RileyCooper_14) July 31, 2013
So what have the Eagles done?
They fined Cooper. He had a press conference tonight and said the fine was big, although he wouldn’t get into details. Jeffrey Lurie said “We are shocked and appalled by Riley Cooper’s words.”
Cooper met with the media this evening.
Here is Les Bowen’s reaction to the press conference.
Here is Jeff McLane on the PC.
Some fans have talked about suspending or even cutting Cooper. He won’t be cut, unless it is performance related. A suspension is possible, but seems unlikely.
Here’s the thing for me. Riley Cooper has been part of the Eagles for the past 3 seasons and this offseason. I think this is the only incident he’s been involved with. To my knowledge, he’s gotten along with his teammates, both white and African-American. If there was a pattern of behavior, I’d say that getting rid of him may make some sense.
Cooper now has to walk into a locker room and look Mike Vick, LeSean McCoy, DeSean Jackson, Jason Avant, Trent Cole and Jason Peters in the eye. They know how he’s treated them (hopefully well). They know what he said. Those guys have to decide if they forgive Cooper or if this is going to be an issue. If it is a problem for them, then the team will need to do something else. If the teammates forgive him and say “Let’s move on”, then life will just move on.
That isn’t to say fans and the media won’t stick with this story. No matter how his teammates react, Cooper will be labeled a racist by many and that’s something he’s got to live with. You don’t say what he did, especially when it was directed at an African-American security guard, and have that forgotten any time soon, if ever.
Incredibly disappointing story, on several different levels.
* * * * *
Here is Riley Cooper’s full apology. Jimmy Bama has the video, but the sound is low.
CSN has some video up with good sound, but only about 1/4 of the PC.
* * * * *
Please be careful when commenting on this subject. I hope this doesn’t need to be said, but I will ban anyone who gets out of line. Choose your words carefully and be very careful if you attempt to use sarcasm. What may seem clever to you may be lost on others.
_
Very disappointing. When the time came for him to step up, he takes a huge backward step
Yep.
Tommy, your point about how he will be treated in the locker room is right on point.
Michael Vick will never be forgiven by many no matter what he does or says. I expect the same will be true for Cooper.
A difficult subject to approach on a football website. As usual, Tommy comes at it from the correct angle: how will Cooper be received by his teammates, and the rest of the people in this league? Let’s be careful, here.
I will ask: is that Kelce next to him in the video? Kelce (or whoever that person is) seems genuinely shocked to hear that coming out of Cooper’s mouth. What to make of that, I don’t know.
I thought he might be Danny Watkins at first, but I don’t think so. Definitely is not this guy http://cbsphilly.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/jason-kelce.jpg?w=300
There is a pretty large height difference between Riley and the look alike watkins. Fairly certain he’s not the genuine article.
I think it’s Danny Watkins. Although Coop has said he wasn’t with any teammates at the concert.
Looked like watkins was next to him, and Kelce was the guy with his arm out trying to steady him.
Can we get something positive to go on in that locker room please. Cooper has a huge opportunity to step up and now this will be brought up all year long.
I would rathed avant be the #2 wr. He has done nothing but give his all and deserves some more pt
He’s just not fast enough to be a good starting WR.
I just can’t see cooper coming any where close to picking up the loss of maclin. I do like damarius johnson other than his size.
its not going to be one person, ertz damaris cooper casey all them will absorb his role
Re: Kramer II?
Actor Michael Richards — remember him from Seinfeld — hasn’t been heard from since his own on-stage racially tinged tirade.
Contracts were canceled or never consummated.
I’ll be interested to see how the Mayor and the civil rights community writ large responds to what is obviously deeply offensive conduct (to most people, at least).
I don’t know . . . when you see one cockroach, there’s usually more on the way.
__________________
You want to think athletes, especially at the level Cooper’s reached, have transcended any biases they may have been exposed to growing up.
I guess not.
Athletes are people, too. For better or worse.
Michael Richards is interesting comparison. He was dead sober and was performing in public. He also went on an extended rant. That’s still one of the strangest, most shocking things I’ve ever seen.
Cooper’s incident won’t affect him the same way, but it will certainly stain his career for a long time, maybe for ever.
It’s interesting how these things play out with athletes. Not just for racism, but all sort of heinous or nefarious doings, in the public eye redemption can be won on the field (see Mike Vick 2010, Ray Lewis, etc).
Cooper is fortunate in that he is marginal enough to be forgotten or if he becomes successful enough to be remembered, it would most likely involve some form of redemption on the field.
The problem is he’s in a big market. Despite him playing a marginal role the past few years people, fans and media, know his name. I live in NC and have casual non-Eagles fans mention Cooper all the time. This is something that I don’t see going away quickly or quietly.
I agree, I meant more along the lines of long term infamy. 15 years from now it’s likely no one will talk about this because they won’t be talking about Cooper. Us die hards won’t forget. It’s up to Cooper to redeem himself and be remembered for something else, on the field and off the field.
You guys should check this out if you haven’t seen it. http://comediansincarsgettingcoffee.com/michael-richards-its-bubbly-time-jerry
Just checked that out. It’s really good.
The best comments I’ve seen on the subject were by Jason Avant this morning on CSN. Riley will ultimately have to live with what he said, just as Michael Richards did in that clip.
Honestly, Michael Richards hasn’t had much going on since Seinfeld, so I don’t think his idiotic tirade had anything to do with his career dying off after the show. I do absolutely think it killed any chance of a resurgence in popularity for him.
A racial tirade is no excuse for attending a Kenny Chesney concert
For whatever reason, I detest Kenny Chesney.
One does not need a reason to detest Kenny Chesney.
Or the sleeveless flannel.
There’s obviously no excuse for what he said, but I have to think if he was such a virulent and hateful racist it would’ve caused problems with his teammates and we would’ve already heard about some incidents
Yeah, I have a hard time believing he’s a fullblown racist with everything about how he acted before this video. That clip that was posted a while back of a skit by Chris Rock rings true about that word basically meaning “bad black people” to some people. There are worthless, stupid, rude, whatever people of any race, and it’s unfortunate that blacks have a word established in our language that to some people refers to “bad people” of their race as if they were a separate population group, while others think the word applies to the whole group, and as such it offends them deeply. While a lot of the backlash about him reminds me of the line from the bible “judge not that ye be not judged”, Cooper is definitely wrong for not realising that that word can be interpreted the way it is by and get this sort of reaction from the broader population, even if the reality of how he feels and relates to black people isn’t as bad as his drunken tirade would make it seem.
Too bad for the bible, people have opinions.
I see your point but I think you are giving Cooper too much of a pass. There are literally hundreds of words Cooper could use against someone he has a problem with. He chose that one, and I doubt it’s the first time. Now I am not of the mind he should be cut and vilified, but the fact is his actions were more than a simple miscalculation. I’m sure he of all people having worked in a sport where the majority of the players are black knows very well how that word is received.
Indeed. Riley is a moron. Even if my idea of what Riley thinks of that word is wrong and he hates black people, he should have known what using it would mean for his life. If I’m right that he uses the word in a way most people don’t, he still should have known how it would look to most people. It’s never the other person’s fault when you’re misunderstood.
However, I don’t think anyone can say definitively that Cooper is a racist based on this video. In fact, I think being shrouded by the racism angle is that he’s clearly not where he could be in his growth as a person overall. When life presents you challenges, it’s easy to turn them into problems and make yourself a problem by becoming enraged. In those states, as Cooper did, people lose control and only cause destruction. It’s less important that he uses certain words than what he uses his words for. Bigger than a certain set of beliefs about a group of people is that this is a person who devotes his time and energy to hurting himself and people around him.
I didn’t mean that I think Riley is racist. However, I doubt that’s the only time he has used that word, and I am sure he knows how egregious it is based on his apology and acceptance of his punishment. This shouldn’t be dismissed as he casually reached for the wrong word. Nor should he be made out to be a racist villain.
With you on all that.
At the very least you know he was raised around that sort of talk. It remains to be seen if he is a racist of the worst kind or just a belligerent drunk reaching for the nastiest thing he can say. No matter how you crack it he deserves the fine and sitting him would be deserved.
i am hoping that he was just drunk and angry about whatever had just happened with the guard, and was just looking for the biggest hurtful thing to say. That would just show immaturity.
I just hope that this is the case.
“belligerent drunk reaching for the nastiest thing he can say”
Excellent point Ark. I don’t know Coop, but I’ve been in that situation before, drunken and angry, and that’s exactly what people do.
To play devil’s advocate, what is the point when “belligerent drunk” no longer works as an excuse? If racial slurs don’t count when drunk, what about threats of violence against women? Actual physical violence? I’m not sure alcohol can be used to justify anything. That goes for you, me, Cooper, anyone.
As I said above, I think we should all take our cue from Cooper’s black teammates. Their opinions matter more than any of ours. So far, Vick has publicly accepted his apology. To me, that matters more than anything.
It’s an age old question in all sorts of things. Obviously Cooper had the words in his lexicon, we all do. For the most of us, we have inhibitions the prevent us from ever using words like this. Enter a goal: piss that guy off/hurt him verbally/get personal, and disinhibitors such as rage and alcohol….and blammo.
Drinking is NEVER an excuse, you must be accountable for everything you do while drunk, and know this before your chose to abandon sobriety.
However, in judging Cooper’s character one must determine: was the conflict between Cooper and the security guard a product of racism? In other words, was cooper giving the security guard the business because he was a racist? Or was he giving him the business because he was drunk?
In my opinion the fine was necessary, and a suspension wouldn’t be uncalled for, regardless. But a drunk can grow up. A true full blown racist is irredeemable.
There is a lot of truth to the nastiest bit. I’ve been startled by how people become entirely different on alcohol, people I thought I had a good relationship with turning on me, etc. I think, though, the fact that I couldn’t have predicted such events was always on me not doing a good enough job of seeing what was in front of me. Alcohol (and other drugs) never change what you are, only magnify it.
That is absolutely PERFECTLY stated. I myself can remember ALOT of times especially in my highly volatile 20’s, tying a real good one on & ended up really hammering someone with my opinions of them or telling them just what I thought of them. Back then I could always fob it off the next day on “oh man nevermind that was the vodka talkin.” But I knew the truth. The thoughts were in there it’s just my voices brake pads were too lubed to function! Which is why I never believed anyone who used the excuse with me & why I don’t buy Riley’s apology. You really nailed it
I had not considered the “nasty” angle. I guess I had already thrown Coop under the bus.
Time for me to take a deep breath and think about his thing. The whole episode is like LaGarrette Blount all over again. In the Blount thing, Chip was a new coach facing a terrible situation.
The irony is one of the messages chip preaches is to be what you want the world to see. Cooper is probably understanding that better than anyone right about now (to late of course). I do like that Chip told Cooper to go face this.
Ultimately, in terms of football, what matters isn’t the PR of it all, but how the locker room receives his apology. They know coop a lot better than anyone on the outside. They likely have a lot better context from which to judge his character and the sincerity of his apology. As long as the locker room can reach a loose consensus and move on, one way or the other, Chip and this team should come out fine (just a matter of if coop will be part of that).
Reaching for the nastiest thing you can say is something people do. To paraphrase my brother, if a rich person pissed me off, then all rich people suck. If a poor person did it, all poor people suck. And you lash out using the worst words you can find for that group of people. Multiply times 1000 when alcohol is involved. And then sprinkle with gunpowder, kerosene and lit matches when it deals with race.
I think the lesson this proves is that people kind of suck at times. What I think the real point of that lesson is, though, and that everyone trying to feel superior will be missing, is that we all kind of suck. We all do stupid shit like this, in varying degrees and shapes. It’s sad, and even sadder that it can be captured on video. I think Avant’s comments on the subject kind of nailed it.
I believe he lied.
I can’t for one moment believe that he’s never used the term before. That’s not a term your mind just magically feeds you, when you’re upset with someone. When I’m drunk I don’t all of a sudden start using words I’ve never used before. When I’m angry, I don’t pull out my “one-time use hate list” on anyone!
For starters, if he’s regretful and extremely disappointed in his self, he needs to have a conversation with the security guard he felt he was degrading. And apologize to his family.
My g/f has called me some nasty things. It’s not out of hate though, she’s pretty much right on point.
My point is that Cooper lied.
Your girlfriend uses terms she probably has used her whole life…and/or uses them amongst close company freely.
What I think is more interesting is Marcus Vick’s reaction on twitter.
I, like most people (regardless of race/color/ethnicity), think he is a jackass.
He just claimed his Twitter account was hacked and that he didn’t make the bounty comment. Classic. Marcus is Billy Carter, 30 years later.
http://www.rustycans.com/Graphics/A-B/Billy.GIF
Just posted about this, should’ve read all the comments before I posted..lol…….He should stfu. Why hasn’t Mike shut him down already is my question.
Haha, Billy Carter. That name makes me want to drink a nasty, warm beer for some reason.
Wait, he was a PBR spokesperson?
Watch it, buddy!
@ ATG…
Heresy!!!
I have nothing to say. Riley Cooper, I had the upmost respect for him and had high expectations for him going into this year. Really didn’t take him that long to disappoint, did it?
“Cooper said Eagles coach Chip Kelly told him to “go out and face this.”
Love this. That’s exactly what needs to be said. Chip knows Coop is a man and that he will have to take responsibility for his actions. He didn’t need to scold him, because he’s not dealing with college students anymore. This gives me faith he’s going to be able to handle all the differences that come with dealing with the switch from college to NFL players.
Marcus Vick chimed in on twitter as usual. Riley is an idiot for sure, Mike should tell his brother once and for all to stop saying anything on twitter that just makes situations worse for everybody.
Maybe he should say he speaks Cajun and English is his second language.
“The NFL stands for diversity and inclusion,” league spokesman Greg Aiello told PFT by email. “Comments like this are wrong, offensive, and unacceptable.”
“Redskins” still OK though.
I’ve been trying to get the word out that all they have to do is change the mascot to a potato and… problem solved.
It’s a horrible situation. It is, however, an opportunity for Chip and the veterans on the team (Cole, Peters, Herremans, Ryans, etc) to take control of the locker room.
Real leaders step up in situations such as this.
Talking about comments Tommy. Their are a lot of friggin morons on youtube. Just shows what kind of world we still live in.
Can be sad.
Its not that surprising really, I’ve worked with/known enough overtly or covertly racist people to know that this kind of thing is a lot more common than I think is generally perceived. Racism isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Shady and Cooper both revealing an uglier side this offseason. I don’t need the Eagles to be full of choir boys but it does kind of stink if you feel like the guys on your team are kinda scumbaggy.
Tebows college roommate, no?
I don’t EVER want someone who’s black to be worried about what me and other white folks say when only surrounded by white folks. Cooper has undermined that in a big way and I’m SO pissed off at him for that. Riley used a hard “R” toward an African American stranger. I’m no saint, but I can’t imagine doing that ever, no matter how angry I was or how much I had to drink.
That said, you totally hit the nail on the head in saying it’s up to Cooper’s teammates. Just perhaps we can hit that nail a bit more forcefully. As pissed off as I am, it’s ultimately not up to me or any other white fan to decide how offensive that comment was. People of color are the opinions that matter most here, especially teammates.
Therefore, I would honestly like to see Cooper’s African American teammates decide what his sanctions should be. If they can forgive Cooper, then MAYBE I can.
Problem with that is do you only include the 60 or so guys who are realistically looking at making the team? And at that point you’ve now marginalized the rest of the players by invalidating their opinions. On the other hand if you do all 90 players what if only a small handful have an issue and its say 1 backup and 5 soon to be cuts?
Yeah. There may be some hitch in the implementation of my idea somewhere.
But in considering your concern, just go all 90. Think about it. The guys on the bubble have to fear crossing the starters. If anything, I’d they have incentive to vote FOR Cooper to ingratiate themselves with the team. So I’d say just include all 90 and do it.
In the NFL, people have to play with some genuinely unpleasant people, and most everyone has to press forward and say the right things (if necessary), and do their jobs. You know, it really is the sleeveless flannel, the Kenny Chesney, and the drunkedness that really set the scene. More than any harm Cooper might have accomplished by verbally assaulting a security guard, the general loserness of the whole thing probably hurts him. They’ll be Mike Kaye and Jason Avant out there talking about how much of a nice person Riley really is, but you know? Riley Cooper don’t have social capital. People don’t go out of their way to be with him, any more than they did for Jason Babin. Guys like Mike Vick survives socially in the NFL because they are well liked and respected on a personal basis. And you can see that personal popularity on the field all the time. When Vick is retired, he may well have a social support system that keeps him in jobs, depending on how sensible he is. With Riley Cooper, there wasn’t any better self to disappoint, like Vick and his funding of the dog fighting. No matter how many people on the team say they’re all forgiveness, Cooper has probably materially hurt his career. He wasn’t good enough on the field for this, and I don’t think he’s popular in the locker room before all this, either.
You know, the sheer, consistent loserville of Marcus Vick illustrates just how much personal character can count. That dude has been told time and again not to be using twitter like that.
This a comment from Les’s article linked above…
“As a black man, I hate the word being used by anyone..period. However, I
don’t judge people by an angry comment; I judge them on their character
that’s on display every day.” – tony11
To me, this is a wise man that understands people aren’t always perfect. And you can’t judge someone on one angry comment.
Tommy detests Kenny Chesney… time to revisit a classic… unfortunately we have been in the same factory lately… anyway…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRBDMMVctu8
Really thought this was gonna be worse. I mean you can’t say that kind of stuff but it’s out of context ad far worse things could have been said.
Not really. Remember, Cooper essentially assaulted a person. It wasn’t a use of the word in any other way but to try and hurt someone deliberately. The only way actually punching someone is worse, is if real injury happened.
I’m fuzzy on the story I’ll have to go back and read it.
I find it very ironic that after all the comments made on this site and others that some of the players and media support Vick inherently because his black, that the only Eagle to have said anything explicitly race related is Riley Cooper making a racial slur against a black person.
There goes our “Riley Cooper hiding in the end zone” kickoff return play! I don’t think he’ll be flying under anyone’s radar this year…
Seriously though, it sucks to see such ignorance on the home team and I cringe at the thought of how much media coverage this will divert from what should be one of the most interesting TC/preseasons in franchise history.
Okay so there was another video of this jerk floating around the EMB from this concert. He was trying to fight some kids yadi yada just being a drunk idiot (we have all been there). I didn’t like it at the time though it doesn’t bother me now because like I said…we have all been there. In general I don’t like his attitude. To phrase it politely, he seems like someone who is of the thought that he has achieved all there is to achieve.
IMO he is bad and I was hoping there would be enough quality guys on the team this year that he found his way to the cut list. Only if he wasn’t a better option of course (I’m no better than him what can I say)!!
Alright all of that being said let me wade into this sensitive subject. I don’t have any statistics here but I will go out on a limb and say that the Eagles locker room is predominantly black. Riley then spends a very good portion of his time with black people. He has probably heard that term used a million times. It is less prevalent now than it used to be but you hear it around the neighborhood all the time, when one man refers to another or a group of others. It can be used in a million different ways with a million different meanings in that locker room type of setting. Very similar to how “bro” or “dude” are Of course anyone who doesn’t have their head buried knows this. Nothing here is groundbreaking, yeah? So then, we can not assume that he was using it with racial intent.
I guess the only person who will ever know the intent behind it is Riley. My opinion is that he probably didn’t have any racial connotation behind it. That doesn’t make it right. Of course he shouldn’t use it. No one should, black, white, red or brown. Because of the feelings it invokes in the majority of Americans. I still don’t like Riley, and will not shed one tear for him. Just don’t think he had hate racial hate behind that use of his word. Especially since he was a country concert. Not the same sort of racial mixing bowl as an NFL locker room…
Please take the time to read what I said and ponder the meaning before calling me an insensitive person or racist. I assure you I am neither.
Oh oh and I forgot. The kids he was trying to fight were white.
The way black people and some white people use the word like an interjection like “mate” or “man” is tricky. Cooper clearly uses the version with an R, which is NEVER used as a term of camraderie. Without an R, having a negative meaning is virtually nonexistent as well, but I wouldn’t assert as strongly that it never happens. I have a hard time seeing how someone could go from the R-less one to the R-ful one. Anything’s possible I suppose, though.
Ill give you that the pronunciation is key. I’ve got a feeling its not something he would have mastered the intricacies of using. If my theory above holds true of course.
Heck I could easily be way off base. Either way Riley is a tool.
Is it possible that this incident says more about society than it does about Cooper? A number of studies indicate that racial bias, even animus, is deep-seeded, and even those of us who socialize across race lines and wouldn’t let skin color influence whom we’d hire, work for, have beers with, date, or marry, harbor race-based prejudices. If there aren’t other similar incidents in his past, I’m willing to buy that the word came from a dark place when Cooper was pissed off and drunk, that its utterance surprised him, maybe in the moment and certainly after the fact. None of this may mean anything to his teammates, and if they won’t forgive him, he should go. But I feel like the criticism I’ve heard so far (and not just here, where criticism tends to be very thoughtful) is missing the big picture.
Interesting questions.
Hard to say. We’re not around Cooper enough to know the real him. Was this a case of a drunken idiot shooting off his mouth or did the beer let down his guard and we see what he’s really thinking?
He’s responsible for his actions, but I think anyone who tries to label Cooper for this one incident is off the mark. You’d need to be around him a lot to have an idea how he really is.
I think we don’t want to think about it much because we want to admire what they do, but a lot of pro athletes are real jerks. There always were a lot of jerks in pro sports but now there are more than ever because of the huge money they make which makes them think even more than they did before that they are so much better than the rest of us. Not only are a lot of them jerks, but with so many people constantly recording their behavior on cellphones, their jerkiness is put on display more than it ever was in the past.
This is a bunch of media nonsense. In anger, just about everybody on the planet has said much worse. Cooper’s real problem is drinking too much in public.
I wonder if Jeff Lurie will fine any players for listening to the vulgar rap music lyrics so many NFL players listen to? Hypocrites.
Off Topic…
Is anyone having trouble veiwing videos on PhiladelphiaEagles.com?
Tommy, did you ban me?!?
Haven’t watched a video today.
Me neither.
Off topic…
Is anyone having trouble watching videos at philadelphiaeagles.com?
Tommy, did you put a video ban on me?!? What’s next? Covers head…
I can never watch videos over there on a specific router I have. Works on everything else. Its something in the settings of the router that I am too lazy to correct, and too stupid to explain. I imagine you have the same issue. Try going hardwire if that is your only router and you need a video fix. Easiest solution mayhaps.
Thanks. I let the video load for a while! and it is going now. thanks! ads worked perfect. the actual video was lagging like I have never seen. i blame riley cooper.
No but if I have to watch the damn Mama Dietz commercial one more time….
This is the usual media hysteria. The only person Cooper owes an apology too is the guy he called the name. Given the amount of trouble NFL players get into, this is a small problem…except to the media who make it a murder case. At least Mike Vick stepped up with some grace, tonight.
Don’t recall Victor Cruz being fined for his twitter threat…does that count?
I’m not really interested in denouncing the reaction to this. It is what it is. But it’s fascinating how “make it into a murder case” isn’t really an exaggeration. The tone and content of the denunciation and disappointment is a little different, but fans are disowning him; ESPN has dropped everything else they were covering for it in the same way they did with Hernandez. Look at this picture. And the comment.
https://twitter.com/WillBrinson/status/362672778899501056/photo/1
The comment for it and general reaction to it on twitter has been “wow, what a perfect photograph to summarise the offseason”. My reaction to it is…irrationally hating a group of people for their skin colour (or being Tim Tebow) is as bad as murdering someone?
I can understand being worried for your safety or your property or other things, but, worrying that someone hates you for a dumb reason, can that improve your life at all? It’s disappointing that one of our eagles is a moron, but no sense crying over spilled milk. We’ll all either go on supporting the team, or we won’t. Either way, not a problem.
Do I believe for a second that this is first time Cooper ever used this word or felt this way towards someone with black skin color? Of course not. You would have to be shockingly naive to think that.
Do I think that makes Cooper a ‘racist?’ I don’t know because I have never interacted with Cooper personally or talked to him in private.
What this incident will do is bring up the same old tired and stupid cliches about ‘racism’ when the simple fact is that due to demographics trends including interracial marriage rates is that viewing racism in the US simply through a white-black perspective is going to be increasingly less valid.
Take San Jose for example. The biggest racial problem they have in the grade schools there is between Mexicans (immigrants or first-generation) and SE Asians (mainly Vietnamese but also Cambodians and others).
Who knew San Jose was such an interesting town?
Really do enjoy this site and the mature approach people have taken today with their comments on this sensitive matter. You never know whats in a persons heart so who really knows how he feels towards black people is only between coop and god. Marcus Vick is also an idiot and reactions like his is one of the reasons why blacks and whites can sit down and have a serious talk about how try and fix race relationship. Like i said in a earlier post I’m more disappointed in him then angery cuz lord knows im not perfect and have said and done things that im not proud of and my life isn’t of a professional athlete.
The locker room element, community, and the other players around the league thats the thing I’m interested in seeing how they all responde. I hope the team would rally together and see that something like this can either push them apart or bring them closer together, my great city of Philadelphia has a opportunity in front of them to welcome Riley back into there arms by accepting his apology and showing him the error of his ways. That first pre season game against another team will be interesting to see if someone will indeed target him, i hope not but hey its football.
Riley’s a big boy. I really doubt any opposing DB’s are going to be able to cleanly and within the confines of the rules do any damage to him. I also doubt that any DB is going to deem it worthy to take a 15 yard penalty and be forced to make a “donation” to Goodell’s office, that a targeting incident would involve.
Hey you never know these guys make some good money and they might just not care too.. Its not like these guys can beat his ass outside the field of play. So the best way to get him would be on the field not that i want that to happen.. He is still a member of my favorite team so
Ehhh… judge not lest ye be judged, right?
I was thinkinga about if I’ve ever done this. I think I’ve used that word once while singing along to Jay-Z, and I only did that AFTER Chris Rock explicitly gave me persmission to do it. I still felt all ashamed about it though so I don’t think I’ve used it since.
But I know when I’ve felt disrespected or felt that someone else was just being a selfish, incosiderate ass, I’ve launched into stupid little tirades about how “they’re this” or “they’re that” or “why don’t they learn how to fu…in drive!!” and I’ve spewed my 15-30 seconds worth of hate and felt better about it afterwards.
Now, that’s not what I believe, deep down. I’m being honest with myself when I say that. But boy if someone made me watch a 15 second clip of myself ranting and raving at those times, I’m not sure if I’d believe I wasn’t a racist ass.
Anyway, my point is that I can’t seem to draw any conclusions from this, good or bad. I will say that Chip seems to be an excellent manager.
Ok, enough procrastinatin’
Oh, I think the players will draw on religious-themed wisdom like “hate the sin, love the sinner”, and talk of accepting his apology with Christian forgiveness.
This just makes me so sad. We have so much to deal with as it is & a distraction like this? God Almighty. No matter how you slice it he is going to be a pariah in the locker room & I can’t BEGIN to imagine the scenes it will create @ other stadiums. He’s a marked man. He’ll feel like a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs from here on out. I REALLY wish we didn’t need him. All that said, I was quite impressed how Vick handled it. I really was. SO disappointing & SO unnecessary 🙁
I suspect this will be a much bigger deal externally than it will be within the organization. The media, the fans, and the team officials and the league will keep carrying on about this for awhile. But I suspect the teammates won’t care much.
I worked a factory job for awhile. Summer job, making fiberglass stuff. The regular employees, long time full-timers, would throw racial and every other kind of epithet around at each other in a sort of joking yet cruel way, and they’d be buying each other drinks after work, and it was just the low brow way they all got along. They also kept Hustler magazines in the bathroom, and played all kinds of nasty practical jokes on each other. It was like “Jackass” in real life.
Best job ever?
You know, I enjoyed it. But we were constantly exposed to dangerous chemicals, so it’s probably best that I didn’t stick around for more than a few months.
I do completely agree that the external impact will likely GREATLY outweigh the internal impact. However I personally don’t think that the potential ramifications can be overstated. It’s going to be a massive distraction. I’m confident opposing defensive players will gladly risk even a fine to deliver a bone jarring “message” EVERY chance they get. Ann’s the fans? Fuggetaboutit! It’ll be insane. WREALLY don’t need this mess. Lastly, no matter what he says or how contorted he seems. It just feels like anoeded him & he let us
After reading the first line of your previous post, I thought THAT was going to be the one that discussed Cooper’s comments.
Just wanted to say how thankful I am for this site as well as Birds 24/7. I just rewatched the video to see if that was Watkins, and the first comments I saw under the blog were cursing ignorant Internet gangsters. I’m grateful that there’s a place I can go to voice my opinions as well as read others without having to see people commenting *blank* this and your momma *blank*
I’m fairly certain it’s not Danny he appears to be several inches shorter than Riley which Danny isn’t
Riley Cooper is indeed a first class idiot. Very disappointing.
I’m still deciding whether or not cutting him is the right idea…there is potentially a lot to lose by not doing so…and some to gain by pulling the trigger.
This to me is crazy. We signed a guy that killed dogs in multiple ways with his own hands… Yet you want to cut a guy that did not break the law with words?
Vick did in fact get cut and went to prison for his actions, and got his second chance a few years later. So there’s no parallel to be made there. I don’t think Cooper should be cut for this, but it’s not something that can be tolerated either.
[devil’s advocate]Cutting Cooper for his words now, AFTER he has apologized, been publicly humiliated and been fined (paid his price) would be parrallel to cutting Vick for his actions AFTER he got out of prison (paid his price).[/devil’s advocate]
I’ve actually been impressed by how few people in the comments I’ve been reading have called for him to be cut. And most of those that have are doing so with a ‘protect the team from distractions’ rather than a punitive line of reasoning.
I don’t agree with that parallel at all. However, I am not calling for Cooper to be cut or even suspended.
I don’t think it’s a strong parallel, thus the tags.
To me, cutting Cooper is probably an over reaction, at least without a little additional context. If this was truly an out of character, isolated incident that Riley Cooper is sincerely apologetic about, I don’t think cutting him is the right response. As CK, you make Cooper apologize to his teammates, and have him prove to his teammates that he is sincere in his apology, and then move on. And if this is an isolated event, chances are his teammates will accept the apology based on the fact that he has displayed good character beyond this event.
On the other hand, if this isn’t truly isolated, and Cooper is in fact a racist idiot, his teammates are likely not going to be willing to accept his apology, and that’s when things would make a difference for the rest of the team. That’s when the locker room would be affected and you would consider cutting Cooper.
Agree with this.
I agree with this as well….
I’m all for forgiveness, I was thinking more about the message the Eagles are sending as an organization.
And as to the Vick thing…that is a completely different situation. As ICDogg said, there’s really no parallel there. I wasn’t crazy about the Eagles signing him in the first place. I heard things about that case that many haven’t…my dad is friends with one of the 3 men that was in the room during Vick’s interrogation. I heard things I didn’t like.
But at the end of the day…he did his time. And it was a ‘second chance’ situation.
But yeah…I guess the best thing to do is to see how the team reacts to this…they should be the judge and jury here.
Wrestling with this observation: This incident has given Mike Vick a golden opportunity to be a leader of this team, and he has taken it and ran with it.
He has. Kudos to him. Will it help him on the field?
That’s what I’m wrestling with.
How did it work out for Kerry Collins? The drunken racist quitter. Collins didn’t use the term in a hurtful way. He was trying to be funny and couldn’t pull it off.
Good memory. Forgot about him. I think Kerry had started burning bridges before his comment. And he made that comment about a teammate. Disastrous.
a shame for riley, i dont think he is really like that, but damn…. he brought all this upon himself.
always liked him, thought he was the ideal 4th-5th WR. Good STs player and has a nice offensive skill set.
How is Fuzzy Zoeller doing? Vick is showing class, his brother, well not so much. I’ll go on record saying I doubt Cooper will ever do that again.
I have a feeling that the locker room give and take uses words that would shock outsiders. The players are like brothers who understand one another. The whole problem with this incident is the media got involved and blew it out of proportion for ratings.
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