Eagles wide receiver Riley Cooper met the media after signing a five-year contract extension with the Eagles on Thursday, something that seemed highly unlikely after he was videotaped using a racial slur at a Kenny Chesney concert last summer.
Most of the discussion was about the extension, but the timing of the press conference meant that recent talk about penalizing players for the use of racial slurs on the field also came up. Early reports about a rule specifically banning such slurs have given way to the league potentially making them a point of emphasis under existing rules against abusive language on the field.
Some players have come out against that idea, saying it would be too hard for officials to police effectively. Cooper sees things a different way, however.
“I think it’s a good rule,” Cooper said, via John Gonzalez of CSNPhilly.com.
Word of such an emphasis only came up recently, which leaves steps for the league to take before anything is put in place for the 2014 season but some action seems likely in the wake of several instances of players uttering slurs on and off the field in the last year.