As we have said, Riley Cooper will be seeking counseling and we have excused him from all team activities. This is all new territory and we are going to evaluate this timetable every step of the way. He will meet with professionals provided by the Eagles during this period of time to better help him understand how his words have hurt so many, including his teammates.
If you haven’t heard of Riley Cooper by now…well, welcome back from Albania. Those of us here in America have found ourselves bombarded by the latest example of why drinking and testosterone don’t mix well. Caught on tape while at a Kenny Chesney concert and screaming that he wanted to “fight every nigger” there, Cooper is having a terrible, horrible, very bad time of late.
The question, in my mind at least, is whether Riley Cooper really is a racist, or whether he was guilty of letting too much alcohol do the talking for him. If you believe that alcohol lowers inhibitions and reveals a person’s true nature…well, what we have here is one badass racist. If you’re a bit more forgiving, you might just believe that Cooper, though exhibiting horrible judgment and ever worse public behavior, is at heart a good person and deserves a second chance.
Cooper, until this weekend deservedly anonymous on an Eagles roster populated by outsized personalities with checkered pasts (see Vick, Michael), is now the focus of a national debate. Do we forgive him and allow him to make good on his assertion that he’s not that person…or throw him away and cast him out of polite society forever?
I don’t know Riley Cooper, nor do I know enough about him to gauge his character and understand the person he truly is. What I do know is that America is a country built on second chances. We’re a nation of people who’ve done and/or said some truly stupid and offensive things. Despite that, many of have been afforded second chances and thrived with the opportunity to prove themselves again. Vick was convicted several years ago of animal abuse. He did his time in prison, and the Eagle signed him, thinking that Vick understood that he had his second (and last) chance to make good. Not every one was quite so sanguine about Vick being allowed to make a comeback in the NFL. Many, including several animal rights groups, wouldn’t have been happy until Vick was forcibly subjected to the same abuse he subjected so many of his dogs to. Some folks will never forgive Vick, just as many (perhaps even some of his African-American teammates) will never forgive Cooper. That’s their right in a free society, but I think it’s a mistake.
One of the hallmarks of the average American’s relation to public figures is that we tend to hold them to standards we’d never dream of holding ourselves to. That we also tend not to recognize the hypocrisy inherent in that double standard doesn’t exactly reflect well on us as a society. My preference would be to allow Cooper to prove that he really, truly isn’t an unreconstructed racist. Accept his apology, but in the words of an old Russian proverb, “Trust, but verify.”
The toughest challenge for Cooper lies in the Eagles locker room. Most of his teammates are African-American, and if you’ve ever played a team sport, you understand how toxic something like this can be. If his teammates are unable to find it within themselves to forgive Cooper, it could tear the team apart. I can’t imagine this is the sort of thing that (former Oregon coach) Chip Kelly thought he’d have to deal with in training camp.
You may or may not agree with me, but ask yourself what you’d want to happen if you were in Riley Cooper’s shoes. I’d submit that you’d be hoping to be granted a second chance, an opportunity to prove that you’re not a racist. Why shouldn’t Cooper have the same opportunity you’d wish for yourself? Cooper may in the end prove to be a racist, but I’d like to think that we can be reasonable and forgiving enough to provide the rope with which he can pull himself out of his self-created hole…or hang himself.
Or would you rather just throw him away without the hope or possibility of forgiveness?
