‘Just let my play talk.’ Dallas Cowboys WR Amari Cooper fueled by burning passion inside
Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Amari Cooper is back.
He wants to be better than ever.
He is more appreciative than ever.
And he is even more prescient than before.
Cooper has heard it all from fans, coaches, former teammates, opponents and coaches — not just in the last three seasons with the Cowboys but since he entered the NFL as a first-round pick of the then-Oakland Raiders in 2015.
Cooper lacks passion. He doesn’t love the game. He is too nonchalant. He has bad body language.
But he doesn’t care.
Not because he doesn’t value the opinions of others in real time, well except for former Raiders teammate Michael Crabtree.
But we will get back to that.
It’s just that he knows firsthand the fire burning deeply inside of him belies his laid-back demeanor and causes many to misconstrue his stoic nature as a lack of desire.
“There are 16 different personality types,” Cooper said. “I just attribute it to people not really understanding personality types. There’s so many different personality types, and I guess if somebody doesn’t have the same personality as me or as the next person, they won’t really understand. That’s what I attribute it to.
“People are really misinformed. I never felt pressure to be different or anything, because I try to just let my play talk.”
Cooper has never been flamboyant
His cerebral personality and quiet ways are contrary to the stereotypical flamboyance and demanding presence wide receivers have become known for.
In Cowboys lore, that latter has been personified by the demonstrative likes of Michael Irvin, Terrell Owens and Dez Bryant.
Cooper is who he is and who he has always been.
And he has no interest in changing to fulfill a narrative.
“I can’t change that,” Cooper said. “I used to be really shy, like in middle school. I’m not as shy as I was. I’m still introverted, but I wouldn’t say I’m really shy anymore.”
In his spare time, the soft-spoken former Alabama star plays chess and reads books — the last one is “The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Making of AfricaTown, USA.”
Cooper said it’s a huge misconception that you have to be vociferous and vocal to be passionate about the game.
“I think it behooves people to understand those personality types,” he said.
Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy said everyone recognizes Cooper goes about it a different way than some of the attention-seeking and more flamboyant wide receivers of the past.
What he is, the Cowboys like.
“He’s very cerebral. He’s really into his craft,” McCarthy said. “At the end of the day, he’s very gifted.”
Learning to be a student and willing teacher
Cooper has always been a student of the game. His book on route running is of the stuff of legends.
And he is a willing teacher.
His tutoring of second-year receiver and budding superstar CeeDee Lamb on route running after practice was featured on HBO’s “Hard Knocks.”
“Just asking him about a release that he had hit and he was giving me the rundown by putting me in his shoes or his mind if you will,” Lamb said when asked about Cooper’s lessons. “He gave me the clues as far as how to move a guy or just be deceptive.”
It’s an example of Cooper learning through age, wisdom and maturity.
Because he always wasn’t a willing student.
“I had Michael Crabtree,” Cooper said. “He was that vet when I was a rookie, when I was a young player. He gave me a lot of advice. I didn’t listen to him much. But as I grew older, I realized everything he told me was true and was right. I was just hard-headed I guess.”
After injury, he has never loved the game more
Similarly, people are hard-headed when they misconstrue Cooper’s soft-spoken nature for a lack of passion.
If only they could feel the pain and longing to play football that he endured after undergoing off-season surgery for loose bone spurs in his right ankle and then realizing there was another injury there that caused added inflammation.
It required extended rest and rehab. He missed the entire offseason and the first three weeks of training camp.
“The thing about being injured, it really reminds you about how much you love the game,” Cooper said. “It has just shown me how much I really want to be out there because I miss it so much.
“I’ve never wanted to run a route so bad.”
Cooper is back and running routes with precision like never before.
Now he wants to eat the gravy
And now the four-time Pro Bowler — who has surpassed 1,000 yards receiving in five of his six seasons in the league, including the last three with the Cowboys, prompting the team to sign him to a five-year, $100,000 contract before last season — believes he can be better than ever.
“Just trying to be the best Amari Cooper that I can be, trying to be better than I’ve ever been,” Cooper said. “I’ve been talking to myself a lot lately about how I want this year to be different from any other year that I’ve played football.”
He has lost weight and has cut down his late night Wingstop orders. No food after 8 p.m. He is stronger and faster.
Cooper just wants to eat on the field. And he is not shy about stating what he wants.
“The way I look at it is like 1,000 yards is like the — it’s just OK,” he said. “But anything after that is like the gravy, you know? I want the gravy.”
Gravy could include double-digit touchdowns or 100 catches in a season.
Of course, the emergence of Lamb, the presence of talented third receiver Michael Gallup and the need to feed two-time rushing champ Ezekiel Elliott gives the Cowboys a ton of explosive weapons but might make it difficult for one person to get all the gravy.
“Winning,” Cooper said. “That’s how everybody will be happy. When you’re winning a lot of games, you know that something has to be going right. That’s all that matters to me, no matter what my stats look like.
“If we win, I’ll be really happy, because that’s what it’s about.”
