The pandemic has polarized the athletic spectrum, and the Dallas Cowboys are now facing internal drama.
The “playmaker,” former Dallas Cowboys receiver Michael Irvin came for his Cowboys wide receiver brother Amari Cooper for not being vaccinated.
The #Cowboys have placed star WR Amari Cooper on the COVID-19 list, knocking him out Sunday and putting his availability for Thursday in doubt as well.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 19, 2021
Cooper’s decision has him on the NFL reserve/COVID-19 list. As a result, he missed Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs. “America’s Team” lost that game 19-9, and now he will also miss the Thanksgiving matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders. Cooper played for the Raiders the first three seasons of his career.
Michael Irvin Is Not Happy
“I don’t know what word to put on it, but I am absolutely hot about it,” Irvin said to TMZ on Tuesday. “Are you joking? I got a guy named Cedrick Wilson catching passes who makes $2 million and a guy named Noah Brown who makes $1 million? And I got a guy who makes $21 million, on the bench, at home, not playing. it’s crazy.”
Amari Cooper's impact is so, so much bigger than the 5 catches for 64 yards he's been averaging this season.
— David Helman (@davidhelman_) November 21, 2021
Cowboys Nation has felt the burn without Cooper and caught more unfortunate news during the process. Cowboys QB Dak Prescott struggled with two interceptions and no touchdowns against the Chiefs. However, Prescott defended his teammate at the Chiefs post-game presser, saying, “Let’s not try to knock the guy or put the guy down for a personal decision.”
“Our job as athletes is to try to remove any reason of not winning the Super Bowl,” Irvin continued to TMZ. “It’s why I condition, so fatigue isn’t the reason that I lose the Super Bowl. It’s why I go over plays a million times, so that a mistake is not the reason why I lose the Super Bowl.”
Stop Playing With Irvin’s Super Bowl Dreams
“You have to try to mitigate any issue that can cost you a game or a Super Bowl. And COVID is one of them. You go get vaccinated to try to mitigate it as best you can.”
Then Cowboys receiver CeeDee Lamb suffered a concussion during the first half of the Chiefs game that took him out. Now in his seventh season in the NFL, Amari Cooper has run for 583 yards and caught 44 passes and five touchdowns this season.
The only one ahead of him in all of those categories on the Cowboys roster is Lamb.
In The Coop
Now Cooper is following the NFL COVID-19 protocols and is in isolation due to a positive COVID-19 test. Cooper’s choice to be unvaccinated means he can’t be around the team for ten days minimum.
“Now, you can still get it after you get vaccinated, but it’s a different percentage chance of you getting it,” said Irvin to TMZ. “And I need you to get that different percentage chance. I’m so hot for Amari Cooper not being on that.”
Cowboys’ Bubble Popped
In addition, the leader of the Cowboys Nation, Jerry Jones, kept it as diplomatically real as he could about Cooper’s absence due to his vaccination status.
“Amari Cooper is outstanding,” Jones said on 105.3 The Fan. “He’s one of the highest character guys that you will ever be around in any area. He’s outstanding in his introspect and how he does things. Nobody is saying he isn’t outstanding, but this is a classic case of how it can impact a team. At the end of the day, this is the team. You cannot win anything individually.
Dallas Cowboys Are The Most Valuable Sports Franchise | $6.9 Billion Now The Global Standard
However, Jones punctuated his innermost thoughts by stating, “The point is, it popped us, this did pop us.”
In Cowboy nation, getting popped is not the ideal situation for the league’s most marketed franchise.
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