Cowboys Jerry Jones, Michael Irvin criticize Amari Cooper for COVID vaccine decision: ‘It let us down’

Dak Prescott may not be ready to criticize “Personal Decision” by Amari Cooper Not vaccinated, but Hall of Fame recipient Michael Irvin does.

Irvin, a former Cowboys star who is now an NFL Network analyst, ripped Cooper for his decision in a recent interview with TMZ.

“I don’t know what words to use about it, but I’m really hot about it,” animated Irvin said of Cooper’s absence. “Are you kidding? I have a guy named Cedrick Wilson catching passes that makes $2 million and a guy named Noah Brown makes $1 million? And I have a guy who makes 21.” million dollars, on the bench, at home, not playing. That’s crazy.”

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The Cowboys’ attack struggled without Cooper against the captains, as they hit single-digit totals in a 19-9 loss to the defending AFC champions. Cooper’s absence plays a major role in their affairs, and traumatizes Cooper’s sidekick, CeeDee Lamb.

Now the Cowboys will have to survive without Cooper again for their Thanksgiving game. He was automatically disqualified from that competition when he tested positive for COVID-19 last week, as he was required to miss a minimum of 10 days as an unvaccinated player.

And Irvin can’t be reconciled with Cooper’s decision because he believes it will hurt Dallas’ chances of winning the Super Bowl.

“Our job as athletes is to try to eliminate any excuses for not being able to win the Super Bowl,” Irvin explains. “That’s why I’m tired, being too tired isn’t the reason I lost the Super Bowl. That’s why I’ve played it over and over a million times, so one mistake is no excuse. cost me the Super Bowl. You have to try to minimize any problems that could cost you the game or the Super Bowl. And COVID is one of them. Get vaccinated to try to reduce it. minimize it as best as possible.

“Now, you can still get the disease after being vaccinated, but your chance of getting it is a different percentage. And I need you to get that different percentage chance. I can’t wait for that. Amari Cooper is not like that.”

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Cowboys owner Jerry Jones also addressed Cooper’s condition in an appearance on 105.3 Fans in Dallas. Jones isn’t nearly as angry as Irvin about Cooper’s decision, but he admits that things would have been a lot different had Cooper been vaccinated.

“First of all, he wouldn’t have to be tested if he’d been vaccinated,” Jones said WFAA’s Lane Marking. “So he has no symptoms. So he won’t be tested. So chances are he’d have played if he’d been vaccinated with #1. Second, after you’ve been tested and vaccinated, you can come back faster. That’s 10 days automatically if you haven’t been vaccinated. It’s not automatic if you haven’t been vaccinated and you have to test and it’s important to test negative, but you must have a few negative tests.

“Getting COVID is very punitive, it’s wrong, it’s very punishing if you get COVID if you don’t get vaccinated in the NFL. It is very punitive. We have a high alert level for unvaccinated players in the NFL, a high alert level. And, in fact, it is punitive as we see it if in fact you don’t get vaccinated and get COVID instead of getting vaccinated and getting COVID. Period. And we’re going through a classic case of how it would be vaccinated differently. “

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Indeed, NFL’s COVID protocols declares that asymptomatic vaccinated players are eligible to return to action after testing negative to positive at least 24 hours apart. So, as both Jones and Irvin mentioned, there’s no guarantee Cooper would be able to play in either of these games if he were vaccinated, but his chances would be higher.

Jones seemed to understand Cooper’s decision, but also explained that it could cost the entire team as they look to find their spot for a deep playoff.

“I was just, again, I said early. You check the ‘me’ at the door on a football team,” Jones said. “That has nothing to do with the face mask, no mask, vaccination, no vaccination issues. And if I have a ton, I shouldn’t. It just has nothing to do with it. The truth is it’s an ‘us’ thing when you walk into the dressing room, and anyone is counted on to pull their own weight. They all expect it. They look around. They understand everyone’s rights. They do. We do. Everyone understands our rights and our choices when it comes to those rights. But you might not – if you forget that’s the ‘we’ thing and how important your part is.

“Amari Cooper is brilliant,” Jones continued. “He’s one of the highest character men you’ll ever have in any field. He’s outstanding on the inside and the way he does things. No one said he wasn’t brilliant, but this is a classic case of how it can impact a team.At the end of the day, this is the team.You can’t win anything individually.

“The thing is, it turned us on. This turned us on.”

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Cooper has caught 44 583-yard passes and four touchdowns so far in his seventh NFL season. That number represents about 19.7% of the pitches received by the team, so that will be a difficult gap to fill on Thanksgiving.

If Lamb is also eliminated, that means 44.7 percent of the movies Cowboys receive in production won’t work on Thanksgiving. That could prove difficult for Dallas to get through, even in a game against the reeling Raiders.