Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Riley Cooper was caught on a video on Wednesday using a racial slur at a concert in June. The video went viral and Cooper recently apologized to his teammates — and others — for the remarks.
”This is the lowest of lows,” Cooper said. ”This is not the type of person I want to be portrayed as. This isn’t the type of person I am. I’m extremely sorry.”
He has said that he was drinking when he directed the slur at an African-American security guard at the concert.
”That’s no excuse for what I said. I don’t use that term,” he said. ”I was raised better than that. I have a great mom and dad and they’re disgusted with my actions.”
Some have been calling for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to suspend the fourth year player for his remarks although this will more than likely not happen. Goodell said Thursday that he will let the Eagles punish Cooper without additional penalties from the league. The NFL’s collective bargaining agreement prevents Goodell from disciplining players at the club level and the league level for the same case.
During a time when racial tensions have come to the forefront — especially with it being less than two weeks since the controversial acquittal of George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin Case — the league certainly does not want a public relations nightmare on their hands. Some black teammates of Cooper’s, such as starting Pro-Bowl quarterback Michael Vick, have insisted publicly that they have forgiven the wide out for his comments.
However, teammate Pro Bowl running Back LeSean McCoy has said that, although he has forgiven Cooper, he will no longer view him the same way.
“I forgive him. We’ve been friends for a long time,” McCoy said Thursday. “But in a situation like this, you really find out about someone. Just on a friendship level, I can’t really respect someone like that.”
The running back also mentioned that outside of football, they may never have a relationship.
“Ain’t nothing to prove. He said how he felt,” McCoy said, according to CSNPhilly.com. “He’s still a teammate. I’m still going to block for him. I’m still gonna show great effort. Just on a friendship level, and as a person, I can’t really respect somebody like that. I think as a team, we need to move past it. There are some things that are going to be hard to work with, to be honest.”
With first year Head Coach Chip Kelly trying to get players to learn and buy into his system, this is the last thing the organization wanted to deal with. There will be more to this over the next few days, I’m sure.