I don’t know who Kenny Chesney is. I have never before even heard or seen the name. The guy’s got 14 gold records. I could give a shit. But if your job is to go to work with 52 other highly-trained athletes, most of whom who are black, you probably shouldn’t get caught on video derisively calling people niggers at a Kenny Chesney concert.
Now the Philadelphia Eagles have a problem.
It began when their star wide receiver, Jeremy Maclin, blew out his knee during the first week of training camp. That meant that a little known wide receiver named Riley Cooper was slotted in for a starting role. Then Riley Cooper went to a country music concert and started threatening to beat up niggers. Then the Eagles’ star running back, LeSean McCoy said he has no respect for Riley Cooper and would no longer consider him his friend.
The Eagles fined Mr. Cooper and are going to make him take sensitivity training, which just seems like some dotting the ‘i’ waste of time to me. McCoy kind of put his finger on the problem when he said this:
“I’m thinking like, I think I know him very well and then you do something like that, when you don’t think no cameras are around, you don’t think nobody’s around, everything is in closed doors, you show who you really are,” McCoy said. “I just think I know him a little better than I thought I did.”
There are a lot of assholes in pro sports, and one guy from the New England Patriots is about to go on trial for murder. So, getting drunk at a concert and letting your inner redneck out a little bit isn’t that big of a deal in the greater scope of things.
I was watching a segment on this brouhaha on The NFL Network, and one of the commentators who is a retired black NFL player said that he’d go to management and tell them that he didn’t want to play with Riley. He also explained that Cooper’s presence in the locker room would hurt the team’s chemistry and cause problems, which is almost definitely true.
That got me thinking a bit.
I know that international soccer has had very harsh penalties for racist comments and behavior for a long time. But, in America, it seems kind of strange that a person can be fined by their employer for saying something racist. Fired? Sure. But fined just seems like a restriction of free speech. It’s like, if you don’t want to be associated with me anymore because I’ve made a jerk out of myself, then that’s understandable, but don’t tell me what to say. Right?
Then there is the matter of a player going to management and trying to get a guy fired for something he said at a concert. Okay, you legitimately don’t want to play with the guy and you think his presence will hurt the team’s prospects. But do you take it to management? Or do you let management know by talking to the press?
For his part, Riley Cooper has been contrite and apologetic. His quarterback did several years in jail for torturing dogs, so it’s not like he’s the biggest asshole on the team. And it’s possible that he’ll learn something from this and be a better person.
I don’t know. It’s not a big deal, but it somehow raised a lot of questions for me. If I were his coach, I wouldn’t want him around. Of course, if I were Riley Cooper, I probably wouldn’t want to be running full speed on a football field at a bunch of guys who don’t take kindly to people talking about beating up niggers at country music concerts.
He made his bed and he can lie in it, but I still think shame is the most effective weapon against racism.
