By 
Pity Party Irks Former Washington Redskins Tight End Chris Cooley
Chris Cooley has become synonymous with the Washington Redskins over the past 10 years. The tight end has also become synonymous with telling it like is on radio interviews that have shown up on this site because he was one of those rare weekly interviews that was always interesting no matter what happened in the Redskins’ game the week before. Undoubtedly, he’ll be back on here and back on an NFL roster soon, but he won’t be with the Redskins after they cut him last week. But don’t feel bad for him.
Cooley understands the business side of things and isn’t feeling bad for himself and only really feels bad when he hears the pity party, so you can save that for someone else. Chris Cooley joined 106.7 The Fan in Washington D.C. with Mike Wise and CJ to discuss cleaning out his locker, his plans moving forward, the competition he took part in during camp, not wanting a pity party, when and how he’ll be able to separate himself from always feeling like a Redskins player and regrets surrounding his injury last year.
Did you shed any tears when you cleaned your locker out and did you talk to anybody when you went and did it?:
“It’s fine. It’s what happens. It was pads and helmets, I didn’t feel too bad about it. … I sat and talked to Bruce for about an hour. We’re still friends.”
Reports are that 20 teams have shown interest in you. Have you been able to zone in on anything at this point?:
“I tried to stay away from it as much as I could. That’s why I hired David [Dunn]. I didn’t have an agent at the time. I felt comfortable representing myself. But I really didn’t want to talk to a bunch of different teams and people. It’ll come down, if I make the decision to play, to really having to be the right situation. It’s not something that I have any hurry in right now. I’m not worried about a paycheck. I’m just enjoying the retired part of the week. I’m not retiring, I don’t know why I said that.”
Are you satisfied with the competition part of training camp that you took part in and when did you know you wouldn’t make the roster?:
“I don’t think I ever knew. It was always something that was in my mind. It was always a possibility; I think everyone thought it was a possibility — the fans, organization. Everyone knew that something was probably going to have to happen for me to stay, just based on the way it worked out. That’s the business side of it. It’s unfortunate it’s not Major League Baseball and we’re not the Yankees. It wasn’t a surprise. They know what I can do. I think our team and our staff was aware of what product I was going to give them on the field. And I’m not disappointed that they gave a couple of the other guys a lot of opportunities in the preseason to see where they were and what they could do.”
Is it true you went out the night after you were cut to a peewee football game and just hung out and signed autographs?:
“Yeah, I had a friend playing and went out and watched a game. The only part I’m having a hard time with right now is the pity party. It’s not my funeral, I’m not dying, I’m OK. It’s a business and I’ve understood that it’s a business for a long time and I’m able to separate that. Where I become emotional is when the people involved in my life through the business tell me what I meant to them and tell me how they felt about me and stories that they shared with me. … That’s something that I’m not losing. That’s what I think makes me more emotional.”
You’ve said you don’t really want to play for another team, but when do you think you’ll be able to make that separation to join another team?:
“I want the deal where the Packers were going to give Brett Favre $2 million a year for 10 years not to play for anyone else. That’s a deal I’ve got to talk to Dave about. Tell him to call Dan and give me that money. It’s not salary cap money. I’ll just hang out on the sidelines.”
Do you regret perhaps coming back from the injury too early last year?:
“I have a lot of regrets about the way I handled the entire situation with my knee. I had never had an injury where I didn’t just get better. I’ve never had an injury where I couldn’t go out on the practice field and just work and it would eventually go away. What happened was I spent the offseason working out too soon and too much and I started to get swelling. … I was embarrassed about it. I tried to get better, but I hadn’t. I think any player that hasn’t been with their team wants to show up healthy and I convinced everybody that I could play and play at a high level. Everyone wishes that they would’ve put me on the PUP list and eight weeks into the season I would’ve been healthy and played. But that isn’t the way it worked out and it’s now where we’re at now.”
Comments