Teammates React To Cooper’s Return

Several Eagles players were asked about Riley Cooper’s return to the team today. Here’s a roundup of what they said.

JASON AVANT

On whether the team is ready to move on and accept Cooper back: “I think you guys need the healing process more than the team. You guys gotta cover it so you guys keep going, keep making the story go. But as far as our team, I definitely think that guys are over it. We’ve talked, we’ve had dialogue, we’ve accepted his apology. The only thing you can do is apologize. What else can he do? When a situation happens like that, there’s not too many things that you can do but apologize and be sincere about it. You guys gotta get over it, alright?”

On how the team deals with certain players who are not ready to forgive him: “Everyone has within themselves the ability to or not to [forgive him]. And you have to respect that person, just like we open our arms up to Riley and say, ‘We forgive you our brother.’ But if a person doesn’t, he’s still our brother. And that’s just how it is. That’s the great thing about the NFL. You have guys from different backgrounds, different makeups, and they have the right to feel the way they feel. And you just can’t allow those things to divide you. And even if a person says, ‘Oh I’m never going to forgive,’ OK. We still gotta get along. It may be somebody that’s for gay marriage, another person that’s not for it. You’ve still gotta co-exist. And that’s what we’re about in this locker room is co-existing, getting along, putting your hat on and doing your job.”

DESEAN JACKSON

On his reaction to Cooper returning: “I don’t have no reaction. He came out, he had a good practice. He did a good job today.”

On whether the team is moving on: “We’re not focused on that. We’ve got to go out there and play 16 games and four preseason games. We’re just out here working together and doing our jobs.”

On whether he’s OK interacting with Cooper: “He’s my teammate. We work together.”

On whether Cooper is his friend: “Yeah, he’s a friend. As far as whatever the situation is, it is what it is. It wasn’t directed to myself. Whatever it was, that’s what he dealt with. That’s what he had to do.”

On whether players are still talking about it: “We don’t talk about it. It’s just negative energy. We don’t talk about negative energy. We’re all on positive stuff and just moving forward and just trying to get better as a team.”

PATRICK CHUNG

On whether the team is ready to accept Cooper back: “Absolutely. He’s fine. That’s my teammate. That thing’s over, man. We’re a team. We’re not gonna let anything get in between us.”

On whether he’s talked to Cooper one-on-one: “No I haven’t. I feel everything’s fine. We’re over it, man. Now it’s one step forward. We’re good.”

DEMECO RYANS

On whether the team is moving on: “As a team, I feel like we’ve moved on from the situation. If there are any other guys that have personal issues with it, still lingering, we’ve already talked about it. And for any of those guys, they would go handle it with Riley themselves. Go to the side and talk like men and handle the situation.”

On whether they’re OK with him being back: “With our team, I feel like we’re fine with Riley coming back today. We feel like we’re past that and we’re moving forward as a team together. There’s no division among our team. We’re moving forward together as a team and working towards our goal of being a really good team this year.”

On welcoming Cooper back: “Out of this situation, Riley truly felt like an outcast. As a team, we have to bring him back in as our teammate, as our brother and resolve this issue and move forward. We can’t have any ill feelings lingering throughout this season.”

On dealing with adversity: “I feel like we just handled the situation like men. You deal with it. You talk about it and you put it behind you. So through this situation, we know that as a team, we can get through any adversity that’s gonna face us later in the year. So we just talk about it as men, clear it up and we move forward. It’s not lingering. I feel like as a team, it’s behind us. And we’re trying to get our team better and have a good year.”

On the potential for a divided locker room: “There’s no division in that locker room. Everybody is fine. Everybody’s cool. We’re still brothers out here working together as a team. So there’s no division in that locker room.”

BRENT CELEK

On whether he’s ready to accept Cooper back: “Yeah, I am. That’s all I’m gonna say about it. I don’t think there’s any more else to say about it.”

Follow Sheil Kapadia on Twitter and e-mail him at skapadia@phillymag.com.
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