The Eagles have moved on from Riley Cooper's racial slur
An incident during the preseason nearly derailed the entire year for the Philadelphia Eagles. A video of wide receiver Riley Cooper using a hateful racial slur at a Kenny Chesney concert went viral and he soon became one of, if not the, most hated player in the NFL.
That type of situation can be difficult, especially when the slur used was directly offensive to the majority of players in the league. It made for a challenging start to Chip Kelly's first season as head coach and left many wondering how the Eagles would respond.
After a slow start to the season, Philadelphia has been one of the hottest teams in the league lately and Elizabeth Merrill of ESPN took a look at how the Cooper incident shaped the Eagles' year. For Cooper's part, he's having his best season as a pro, but hasn't made any drastic changes.
"I don't know if I'm going anything different," Cooper said. "I'm just trying to go out there and play as hard as I can."
While that may be true, people's perception of of Cooper certainly changed after the video was released. One of the first people to come to Cooper's defense was Eagles quarterback Michael Vick, who has gone through his own share of controversy. Vick sees the conflict early in the year as actually being a positive for the team in the long run.
"I knew how guys were thinking," Vick said. "I overheard guys talking. Some of the things, I just didn't like what I was hearing. I knew it had to be corrected. I just felt like I was obligated to make sure that this locker room stayed intact.
"What we went through brought us closer together. I think it brought us closer as a team. Once we got through that, we knew we could get through anything. I think he's definitely become a better player because of the issue. Maybe it was a way for him to get the best out of himself."
The whole piece makes for an interesting read as Merrill spoke with many of Cooper's teammates about how the slur incident has affected both him as a person and the team as whole. You can read the article in its entirety here.