Whoops! The Eagles say that featuring a player known to have used the “n-word” for February was an innocent mistake.
Awkward. Unfortunate. Embarrassing. Offensive. All describe the fact that Philadelphia Eagles WR Riley Cooper, who was recorded using the n-word at a concert almost two years ago, was the featured player for February in the team’s official calendar.
In case you’ve forgotten, February is also Black History Month.
Welp.
While it strangely took several days into the month for the anger to form, by Thursday it had reached a fever pitch. You know it’s deep when TMZ comes into the fray but that’s exactly what happened, with Eagles PR guy Brett Strohsacker telling the outlet, “If anything, it was an honest mistake.”
In an unusual move for the notoriously tight-lipped team, the Eagles issued a statement on the matter.
“We do not oversee the production of the annual team calendar. We do not provide any input about the players who are featured or where those pictures appear in the calendar. The NFL licenses the production of that calendar to a third party and we do not have an opportunity to review the material.”
No proof of the calendar is shown to the teams in advance of production? That just begs for problems. Just a guess, but methinks that will be an added part of the process moving forward.
