Tuesday, August 06, 2013

Chip Kelly talks Riley Cooper

Courtesy of the Philadelphia Eagles

Q: It’s the first day back for Riley Cooper rejoining the team, obviously he did pretty well.  How do you think he handled it?
                COACH KELLY:  My concern wasn't how he practiced, it's just him with the team itself and get the chance to make sure he got to talk to every single guy so that they understand how we felt, what he did, and understand that he's truly sorry for what he did.  We'll look at the film and correct all those other things, but that wasn't my concern.

            Q:  Have you had a chance to talk to him?
                COACH KELLY:  I met with him again this morning.  He talked to most of the guys before he left, but there were a few guys left, and I hope he was hoping that by the time he got out to practice he'd have a chance to talk to everybody.

            Q:  Did you consider suspending him?
                COACH KELLY:  I didn't.  I said that when he left.  It was an excused absence.  So it wasn't letting him come back or not come back, because he wasn't suspended.  We gave him time to seek outside assistance, and when he had the opportunity to go get that done, and he called and was coming back this morning, and I met with him and he came back.

            Q:  Did he have to show you something that made you think he was ready to come back?
                COACH KELLY:  No, I deferred to who he went to go visit with.  Again, he wasn't suspended.  It wasn't like he was suspended and he had to go through a set of things to come back.  We just excused him, because everybody that met with him, and Riley himself felt that he needed to go talk to someone.

            Q:  What kind of specialist did he see?  What kind of professional did Riley see?
                COACH KELLY:  That's Riley's personal thing.  And again, I know you have to ask the question, and I understand that, but that's not at liberty for me to say that.  In deference to him, that's Riley's situation.  I wouldn't comment on anybody in any situation if they sought outside assistance and they were excused in terms of where they would go.

            Q:  Is this something you will have to monitor in the locker room going forward?
                COACH KELLY:  Yeah, that's a good point.  We've got a pretty good pulse on where we are right now.  Our players have been fantastic with us in terms of feedback, so it's really certainly a situation that, as I said, this isn't something that we just kind of put in the back seat and get moving forward.  We'll make sure we keep our eyes and ears open and continue to monitor the situation.

            Q:  Are you a little surprised that he did as well as he did in practice?  Based on everything that's been going on?
                COACH KELLY:  No, I'm just out there making sure we get the whole drill going good.  So if I look up and he caught one or two balls, my focus wasn't how is 14 doing, it was the entire team.  So I'll go watch the film to make sure how everybody on the team performed today.

            Q.  Is he going to play on Friday?
                COACH KELLY:  We'll figure it out.  As long as we go through this week and everybody practices.  Again, we've got to get through another good day with these guys, so I'm not going to make any predictions.  Someone goes down tomorrow or if he were to get hurt tomorrow, so we'll see, but if he continues to practice, he'll play.
 

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