Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Riley Cooper returned to practice on Tuesday after a brief stint away from the team. He said that he’s spoken with each of his teammates individually since a video capturing him using a derogatory racial remark went viral, asking them not to forgive him for his actions, but to judge him by his future.
“I talked to everyone individually,” he said following the team’s joint practice with the New England Patriots. “I told them, ‘I don’t want you to forgive me, because that puts the burden on you. I want it all on me.’ I told them that and I told them I apologize. They could tell it was from the heart, they know I’m not that kind of person. It feels good to have support from the guys.”
He added that he felt that 100 percent of his teammates were in support of him, something he sensed on the field in his return.
The Eagles had excused Cooper on Friday and sent him for sensitivity training after video of his remark, made at a Kenny Chesney concert in June, surfaced last week.
His goal now is to earn the respect back from his teammates that he may have lost since the video surfaced. Running back LeSean McCoy recently said that he had lost respect for Cooper after the remarks.
Fellow wide receiver Avant, among the team leaders spotlighted by coach Chip Kelly, said that the Eagles are over the situation as a team.
The training, Cooper said, helped him understand the severity of his remarks.
“We just talked about the situation and how big this is,” he said of the training. “I realize that, and I realize how many people I’ve hurt, how many families I’ve hurt, how many young kids I’ve hurt, and that’s what we talked about, the severity of it. I realize that and I take full responsibility for it.”
Information from Espn.com contributed to this report.