Scott Cunningham/Getty ImagesRiley Cooper remains a Philadelphia Eagle, but he admits that he hasn't done the City of Brotherly Love (or himself, or mankind) any favors.
The wide receiver publicly apologized today after a video hit the Internet in which he's heard saying the N-word during a confrontation at a Kenny Chesney concert in June at Lincoln Financial Field. Cooper, who was drafted by the Eagles in 2010, can be heard shouting, "I will jump that fence and fight every n---er in here."
Cooper admitted to reporters Wednesday that his remark was directed at a black security guard.
"I'm disgusted and I'm sorry," the NFL player said at a press conference today. "That's not the type of person I am."
"There was a confrontation with me and one of the security guards," Cooper explained. "I'm not going to get into what happened. I said something that was actually disgusting and terrible. I shouldn't have handled it the way I handled it...I was drinking but that is no excuse for what I said and what I did. Absolutely not."
And most are inclined to agree with him.
"Riley Cooper quickly apologized but there are some things you can't apologize for. And that's one of them. Goodbye and good riddance," sports radio talk show host Jim Rome promptly tweeted.
"If I ran the Eagles, I would've cut Riley Cooper this afternoon," added ESPN's Skip Bayless.
Cooper has been fined an unspecified amount by the Eagles for his remark, but as of tonight he is still a member of the team.
"We are shocked and appalled by Riley Cooper's words," Eagles chairman and CEO Jeffrey Lurie said in a statement. "This sort of behavior or attitude from anyone has no role in a civil society. He has accepted responsibility for his words and his actions. He has been fined for this incident."
"It was a good amount of money but that's really not important," Cooper also told reporters today. "The situation should not have been dealt with the way I dealt with it. I'm willing to accept all consequences.
"I don't use that term," he continued. "I was raised way better than that. I've got a great mom and dad at home. They are disgusted by my actions. This is kind of the lowest of lows. This isn't the type of person that I am."
He said he planned to reach out to his African-American teammates tonight.
"I'm going to tell them exactly what I'm telling you guys, how extremely sorry I am and how I should have never said what I said," Cooper said. "Most of the ones that know me know the type of person I am."
Unfortunately, now most of the people who didn't know him before are going to know him for this.
And he may want to make sure that Michael Vick's brother Marcus isn't around when he confronts the Eagles quarterback.
According to multiple reports, former NFL player Marcus Vick tweeted, "Hey I'm putting a bounty on Riley's head. 1K to the first Free Safety or Strong safety that light his ass up! Wake him up please....."
A few hours later, that and several other posts bashing Cooper had been deleted and Marcus tweeted, "My page was hacked!"
Michael later lamented his younger brother's comments to Philadelphia's NBC 10.
"To address my brother's situation and what he's saying, I don't think it's really relevant," Vick, who knows all about trying to bounce back from scandal, told the station. "You can't allow yourself to be encumbered in what's going on. I don't agree with what my brother is saying.
"Riley is still my teammate and he just stood in front of us and apologized for what he said. Somewhere deep down you've got to find some level of respect for that. To people in the outside world who don't know how we're dealing with it, they're going to forge their own opinions, but my brother has to not show a certain level of ignorance himself."