Cooper should address potential alcohol problem

THERE ARE good drunks and there are bad drunks.

There are people who drink and their personality doesn't change. Or they become quiet and withdrawn.

And then there are people who drink and become loud and aggressive and belligerent. They develop beer muscles and say and do stupid things and want to fight anybody who looks at them the wrong way.

Which brings us to Eagles wide receiver Riley Cooper.

Cooper is a bad drunk. If we didn't know it before, we know it now, after his disgraceful behavior at that Kenny Chesney concert in June.

As everyone knows by now, Cooper was caught on video using a racial slur after getting into a beef with security personnel at the concert. There's another video of him getting into it with a couple of guys before the concert.

"Sometimes, [Cooper] can get a little bit out of control," Cooper's friend and teammate, Jason Kelce, who was with him at the concert, said last week. "We were both pretty intoxicated that day."

Last spring, according to two witnesses, Cooper was involved in an altercation in a bar in Wildwood, N.J. According to the witnesses, Cooper was heavily intoxicated. Every time a woman would go by, he would claim that she had tried to "grab my ass." When a boyfriend of one of the women finally demanded an apology from him, he refused, telling him he was "Riley Cooper of the Philadelphia Eagles."

An Eagles teammate of Cooper who was with him that day had to escort him out of the bar just as the guy and his friends were about to go after the wide receiver, according to the witnesses.

It's pretty clear that alcohol was the reason behind Cooper's behavior at the Chesney concert. Even if you believe the guy's a racist, he wouldn't have been dumb enough to say what he said at a packed concert if he had been sober.

Which was why I was taken aback yesterday when Cooper said that the subject of his drinking never came up in his discussions with the counselor(s) he talked to during his 4-day leave of absence from the team.

"We didn't really touch on that," he said. "I went out and seeked help. I talked to my family and seeked some help. But I'm going to keep that between me and the others that are helping me out. It went well.

"I'm just going to try to move forward. Hopefully, people will judge me from here on out."

Many will, others won't. When he's not drinking, Cooper is a pretty likable guy. He refers to himself in the third person a little bit too much, but aside from that, he's always struck me as a good kid.

But alcohol clearly brings out the worst in him. And if he was being truthful when he said the subject of his drinking hasn't been discussed in his counseling session(s), then he or his parents or the Eagles need to find him a smarter counselor(s).

For now, Cooper wants to move forward, and most of his teammates, both black and white, seem willing to do that.

"The guys are definitely forgiving," wide receiver Jason Avant said. "Every person has the ability within themselves to relinquish it or hold on to it. I think the guys are willing to let it go."

Avant, who is black, greeted Cooper with a chest bump yesterday after he caught a touchdown pass in the Eagles' joint practice with the Patriots at the NovaCare Complex.

"I'm just letting him know that he's still a part of the team. As much as the outside world wants to hold this against him for the rest of his life, we choose not to," Avant said.

Avant said he forgave Cooper after talking to him shortly after the video came out last week.

"I knew it was out of character for him," he said. "I just wanted to hear it out of his mouth. The whole story.

"Whether [the racial slur was] intentional or unintentional, I choose in my heart to be merciful when it comes to that, because I recognize that, but for the grace of God, I could do certain things. I'm not perfect, either. I don't want to be a hypocrite. We all have sinned."

Linebacker DeMeco Ryans, who also is black, said the team has moved on.

"If there are any guys who have personal issues with it still lingering, we've already talked about it. They would go and pull Riley to the side and talk like men and handle that situation," he said.

Ryans went over and talked to Cooper on the field before the start of practice with the Patriots.

"I just told him it was good to have him back out there," Ryans said. "I know Riley felt like an outcast because of this situation. We had 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."

Even wide receiver DeSean Jackson, who last week seemed very reluctant to forgive Cooper for what he said, seemed willing to put it behind him.

Asked whether Cooper still is a friend, he said, "I mean, yeah, he's a friend. As far as whatever the situation is, it is what it is. [The slur] wasn't [aimed] directly to myself. Whatever it was [that prompted Cooper to say that at the concert], that's the way he dealt with it."

While coach Chip Kelly said the team will continue to monitor the locker-room situation between Cooper and his teammates, Jackson said there is no risk of the issue dividing the team.

"I don't think anybody's worried about that," he said. "Everybody's moved on and is out here working and practicing and doing the best we can to become a better team."

Others outside the gates of NovaCare may not be as willing to move on as his Eagles teammates. Cooper understands that.

"I know people are going to say stuff," he said. "They've always said stuff. You've got to be the bigger man. You have to have thick skin."

A suggestion, Riley, that might help with that: Start drinking O'Doul's.

On Twitter: @Pdomo

Blog: ph.ly/Eagletarian.com