Rex Ryan has some sort of ax to grind with Amari Cooper, and now the ex-NFL coach is apologizing for it.
During Friday’s airing of “Get Up!” on ESPN, Ryan took Cooper to task, essentially for not playing at the level his new contract with the Dallas Cowboys is going to pay him.
Here’s what he originally said.
“I wouldn’t have paid this guy. To me, this is the biggest disappearing act in the National Football League,” Ryan said, via ProFootballTalk. “He doesn’t show up on the road. He doesn’t show up against — when the competition’s good, when he’s against the top corners, that guy disappears.
“This is who he is,” Ryan continued. “Doesn’t love football. Hell with it, he stops his routes, he does all this. I wouldn’t have paid this turd. No way in hell. No way in hell would I have paid this guy.”
Obviously, calling a guy a “turd” is not wise.
And while Ryan did go on to apologize later in the day during an appearance on SportsCenter, he then proceeded to double down on his take.
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“I can’t believe I said that, used that word,” Ryan said, via PFT. “Obviously it was a poor choice by me to say what I said about Amari. Anybody who knows me — look, quite honestly, I think the world of every player and have a great deal of respect for every single player in the National Football League, including Amari Cooper.
“With that being said, I think the Cowboys overspent for Amari Cooper. The reason for it is, I don’t doubt that this is an elite player. He has those traits. But an elite player to me shows up on the road, he shows up against great corners, and he shows up in crunch time, and those are three things that Amari Cooper has not done so far in his career. In fact, I think he’s won one playoff game as a player. And all of those things are how I feel about this young man as a receiver. But what I added at the end of that, I want to apologize to Amari again and hope he accepts my apology.”
OK then.
