Philadelphia Eagles: Not responsible for Riley Cooper on calendar

The Philadelphia Eagles say they’re not responsible for wide receiver Riley Cooper appearing on the team calendar for Black History Month.

In an unfortunate coincidence, the Eagles team calendar featured wide receiver Riley Cooper for the February picture. Of course, February just happens to be Black History Month and Cooper just happens to be the guy who was caught on camera making racial slurs while at a Kenny Chesney concert. Yeah, it’s not a good look for anyone involved. However, the Eagles put out a statement on Thursday saying that the NFL contracts the calendar out to a third-party and the team doesn’t get the opportunity to review it.

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"“We do not oversee the production of the annual team calendar,” the Eagles said in a news release. “We do not provide any input about the players who are featured or where those pictures appear in the calendar. The NFL licenses the production of that calendar to a third party, and we do not have an opportunity to review the material.” (via ESPN)"

That poses an interesting question. Did the contracted third party realize what they were doing and decided to play a joke on the Eagles? Maybe they’re fans of some other NFC East team and wanted to make the Eagles look bad. The conspiracy theories could easily be endless on this one. At least we can all rest assured it wasn’t the Eagles fault that the calendar was released that way.

Cooper’s bad publicity for the Eagles came in 2013 when a video surfaced online showing him using the racial slurs. The receiver took a leave of absence from the team for several days, then returned and apologized to his teammates, many in a one on one capacity.  Then quarterback Michael Vick came out and vouched for Cooper’s character. Fellow receiver Jason Avant did as well, both publicly and among the team.

Cooper ended up one of the starting wideouts that year after Jeremy Maclin tore his ACL. The Eagles signed him to a new contract after the conclusion of the 2013 season.

H/T USA Today Sports

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