Chesney Tries to Distance Himself from Cooper Controversy

Published on 1-Aug-2013 by Stacey Mickles

Football - NFL    NFL Daily Update

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Chesney Tries to Distance Himself from Cooper Controversy

Country star Kenny Chesney appeared on ESPN Thursday to not only create some distance from Riley Cooper and the comment he made at his concert, but to defend himself and his fans.

Cooper originally made the spotlight after the news of Jeremy Maclin being out for the season due to his knee surgery. Now, the spotlight still shines on him but for an entirely different reason.

It was discovered on Wednesday that while at a Chesney concert, Riley Cooper used a racial slur that was caught on tape and posted to a website. The video only captured the racial slur, but it showed Cooper acting out of hand which drew security towards him. The one that he directed his racial slur towards was of African-American decent.

Chesney tries to clear up any misunderstandings about the crowds who attend his concerts.

“To judge an entire audience by one loud mouth isn’t fair . . . not to the NFL, not to the city of Philadelphia and that awesome crowd, not to my band and crew and certainly not to me, who believes music is about bringing people together for friendship and forgetting about the things in life that bring you down,” Chesney said.

“The music I make is about living life, loving life and loving everybody — no matter who they are. That’s how I was raised, and what someone else does or says doesn’t reflect who I am or what my fans stand for.”

To Chesney's credit, he has done a documentary for ESPN a few years ago on the University of Tennessee's first black quarterback Condredge Holloway called the "The Color Orange: The Condredge Holloway Story" who was also Chesney's childhood hero growing up.

Cooper was fined an undisclosed amount by the Eagles immediately after it the video went viral.

Soon after being fined, Cooper addressed the media apologizing for what he said and his actions at the concert. Using terms like “extremely disappointed, extremely embarrassed, disgusted with myself, and extremely hurt”.

Although some of his teammates that know about this incident have decided to forgive him for what was said, he has the rest of the league and country bearing down on him. Numerous sports analysis’s think that the only reason he's ‘sorry’ is because he was caught.

It's a shame that Chesney is pulled into this situation which really has nothing to do with neither him nor his fan base, but with one loud mouth NFL player who couldn't seem to keep his beer or his comments to himself.