Riley Cooper vows apology to black teammates

Riley Thomas Cooper is an American football wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League. He played college football and college baseball for the University of Florida.

Embarrassed Eagles receiver Riley Cooper stood fittingly with his back to a wall outside the team's training complex press room Wednesday night, apologizing for a racial epithet used after a confrontation with an African American security guard working a June 8 Kenny Chesney concert.

The six-minute, 45-second apology -- which followed a Twitter apology -- was only the beginning for Cooper, who was fined an undisclosed amount by the team and now awaits word on whether the NFL will tack on more discipline.

The receiver said he intended to apologize later to his teammates, many of whom are African American, following a 7 p.m. walk-through practice.

"It's going to be very difficult for me. I'm going to tell them, 'I'm extremely sorry,' tell them exactly what I'm telling you guys. There was a confrontation and I handled it extremely, extremely poorly,'' Cooper said to 25 reporters and six local television cameras. "This is kind of the lowest of lows. This isn't the type of person I want to be portrayed as. This isn't the type of person that I am.

"I know no one in Philadelphia is happy with me right now. I accept that. I just hope they see the true me. And accept my apology.''

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello declined to say if the league would take further discipline, adding, "The NFL stands for diversity and inclusion. Comments like this are wrong, offensive, and unacceptable."

In a video that has gone viral, Cooper said, "I will jump that fence and fight every (N-word) here, bro."

He was asked if he had too much to drink that night, when he also was caught on video in a heated argument.

"I was drinking,'' he said. "But that is no excuse for what I said and what I did. I'm willing to accept any consequences.''

Cooper was asked how he let a racial slur, shown on CrossingBroad.com, come out of his mouth?

"I shouldn't have,'' Cooper said. "I'm disgusted. And I'm sorry. That's not the type of person I am. I wasn't raised that way. I have a great mom and dad at home. And they're extremely, extremely disappointed in me. They are disgusted with my actions."

Cooper's profane epithet was the first test of first-year coach Chip Kelly's crisis management.

"He said, 'Go out and face this and tell them exactly what you just told me, how sorry you are for what you said,''' Cooper said.

The fourth-year receiver, who is the team's No. 2 receiver opposite DeSean Jackson following last weekend's season-ending knee injury suffered by Jeremy Maclin, said he met with owner Jeffrey Lurie, general manager Howie Roseman and Kelly.

Cooper declined to reveal the amount he was fined, but said the punishment was a joint decision by the three.

"It was a good amount of money, but that's really not important,'' he said. "The situation should not have been dealt with the way I dealt with it.''

Laurie said in a statement: "We are shocked and appalled by Riley Cooper's words. 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."

Cooper was asked if he expects to be a marked man in the league now.

"I haven't thought that far ahead,'' he said. "I just know how sorry I am right now.''

Curiously, Marcus Vick, brother of Eagles quarterback Michael Vick, placed a $1,000 bounty on Cooper via Twitter on Wednesday night, offering the money to any safety who laid a good lick on the receiver. Later, after being criticized by his brother, Marcus Vick deleted the tweet.

If there is someone Cooper can look to for a road back, it is former NFL quarterback Kerry Collins, who used a racial slur in jest after a night out drinking with black teammates on the Carolina Panthers in the late 1990s before the New York Giants threw Collins a lifeline and he made the most of it, leading the team to the Super Bowl in the 2000 season.

Before that, Collins was arrested for drunken driving and was accused by Carolina Panthers teammates of quitting on his team.

"I've been called a racist, a drunk and a quitter. Other than that, I'm fine,'' Collins said at the time.

After he apologized once more, Cooper left to say he was sorry to those he must convince of his contrition – his teammates.

"Most of the ones that know me, they know what kind of person I am,'' he said.

#Riley Cooper,
source: http://www.usatoday.com

J.J. Cale, Musician and Songwriter Dies

J. J. Cale, a musician and songwriter whose blues-inflected rock influenced some of the genre’s biggest names and whose songs were recorded by Eric Clapton and Johnny Cash among others, died on Friday in La Jolla, Calif. He was 74.

Mr. Cale suffered a heart attack and died at Scripps Memorial Hospital around 8 p.m. on Friday evening, a statement posted on his Web site said.

He is best known as the writer of “Cocaine” and “After Midnight,” songs made famous when they were recorded by his collaborator, Eric Clapton.

A multi-instrumentalist, Mr. Cale often played all of the parts on his albums, also recording and mixing them himself. He is also credited as one of the architects of the 1970s Tulsa sound, a blend of rockabilly, blues, country and rock that came to influence Neil Young and Bryan Ferry, among others. He won a Grammy Award in 2007 for an album with Mr. Clapton.

“Basically, I’m just a guitar player that figured out I wasn’t ever gonna be able to buy dinner with my guitar playing,” Mr. Cale told an interviewer for his official biography. “So I got into songwriting, which is a little more profitable business.”

John Weldon Cale was born in Oklahoma in 1938. He recorded “After Midnight” in the mid-1960s, according to the biography, but had retreated to his native Tulsa and “given up on the business part of the record business” by the time Mr. Clapton covered it in 1970. He heard it on the radio that year, he told NPR, “and I went, ‘Oh, boy, I’m a songwriter now. I’m not an engineer or an elevator operator.' ”

Mr. Cale released an album, “Naturally,” in 1972, to capitalize on that success, and continued to tour and release new music until 2009. But he declined to put his image on any of his covers and kept his vocals low amid the instruments on his recordings. He developed a reputation as a private figure and a musician’s musician while his songs were covered by Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Band, Deep Purple and Tom Petty, among others.

“I’d like to have the fortune,” he said in his biography, “but I don’t care too much about the fame.”

#J.J. Cale

Source: www.nytimes.com

Radio personality Kidd Kraddick dies in New Orleans

Kidd Kraddick, the likable Dallas radio personality whose popularity expanded nationwide when his morning show was syndicated, died on Saturday at the age of 53.

He passed away in New Orleans at a fundraising event for his Kidd's Kids charity organization at Timberlane County Club in Gretna, Louisiana.

Local law enforcement confirmed that Kraddick was taken to West Jefferson Medical Center in New Orleans on Saturday.

A staple of North Texas radio since 1984, he broadcast his nationally syndicated "Kidd Kraddick in the Morning" radio show from a studio at Las Colinas. It aired locally on KISS-FM 106.1.

"All of us at KISS-FM, Clear Channel Dallas, YEA Networks and the Kidd Kraddick in the Morning crew are heartbroken over the loss of our dear friend and leader," a statement from Clear Channel Dallas said late Saturday night. "He died doing what he loved, and his final day was spent selflessly focused on those special children that meant the world to him."

Kraddick was 53. The cause of his death was not released. Clear Channel said that information will be made available "at the appropriate time."

Kraddick's family issued a brief statement asking that their privacy be respected in their mourning period.

KISS-FM altered its usual format late Saturday to celebrate Kraddick's life by playing music and taking calls from listeners.

"I can't believe this is actually happening," one caller said. "He's a part of everybody's family; he makes people laugh."

In a bitterly ironic twist, Kraddick did a radio segment just last week on "what he would say to each member of the show in his final moments on earth" as a comedy bit.

   #Kidd Kraddick

 Source: www.wfaa.com