February is Black History Month. Philadelphia wide receiver Riley Cooper is pictured on the 2015 team calendar for the month of February. If you do not know the back story, you will not understand the irony of this decision by the Eagles.
Cooper, who is white, made news in June 2013 when he attended a Kenny Chesney concert at Lincoln Financial Stadium in Philadelphia and was angry he was not given backstage passes like some of his teammates.
In a video taken by a random fan at the concert, Cooper is seen telling teammate Jason Kelce, “I will jump that fence and fight every n****r here, bro!”
The incident was well-publicized and discussed throughout the summer in many written articles and on television with many people saying he should be cut by the Eagles.
“If anything, it was an honest mistake,” Eagles PR rep Brett Strohsacker told TMZ.
“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.”
Regardless, the Eagles need to make this right. They should pay to purchase all current calendars out there so they can be put them through a shredder. Then, the Eagles should have new calendars printed on their own dime that switch LeSean McCoy to February and move Cooper’s picture to McCoy’s old month.
