Dallas Cowboys star Amari Cooper is slated to miss his second consecutive game Thanksgiving afternoon when the team hosts the Las Vegas Raiders in a holiday matchup.
Cooper missed last week’s ugly 19-9 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs after testing positive for COVID-19 the previous Friday. As an unvaccinated player, this immediately forced him out for Week 12’s outing agianst the Raiders.
On the field, this has had a major impact for the 7-3 Cowboys. Without one of his top weapons on the field, Dak Prescott put up a stinker of a performance — throwing two interceptions and losing a fumble while leading Dallas to a mere three field goals.
Heading into their game against the Raiders, former Cowboys star and Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Irvin is putting Amari Cooper on blast for not being vaccinated.
“I don’t know what word to put on it, but I’m absolutely hot about it. Are you joking? I got a guy who makes $21 million on the bench at home not playing. It’s crazy.”
Michael Irvin on Amari Cooper, via TMZ Sports
Irvin did not come close to stopping there, opining that Amari Cooper’s decision not to get vaccinated will have an impact on the Cowboys’ Super Bowl aspirations.
“Our job as athletes is to try to remove any reason of not winning a Super Bowl,” Irvin said. “It’s why I condition, so that the fatigue ain’t the reason why I lose a Super Bowl. Then that’s why I go over plays a million times, so a mistake is not the reason why I lose a Super Bowl. So you have to try to mitigate any issue that could cause you to lose a game or a Super Bowl, and COVID is one of them.”
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Amari Cooper’s absence and impact on the Dallas Cowboys
Fellow wide receiver CeeDee Lamb went down with a concussion late in the first half of last week’s loss to the Chiefs. This left Prescott and Co. extremely short-handed at the skill positions and impacted the Cowboys’ ability to do anything on offense.
Lamb will now have to pass through NFL concussion protocols in order to play. If that doesn’t happen, Dallas will once again be short-handed as the team looks to overcome last week’s brutal showing.
Cooper, 27, has recorded 44 receptions for 583 yards and five touchdowns in nine games this season. He’s second behind Lamb on the Cowboys in all three categories. This comes after the former first-round pick tallied north of 1,100 receiving yards in each of his first two seasons with the Boys.
As for Irvin, he’s been an outspoken critic of Cowboys players that have refused to get vaccinated for COVID-19 — dating back to prior to Week 1.
“Yeah, and it should upset them. It should upset them. Dude, you’re not thinking right. I don’t give a damn. Nothing else can be more important,” Irvin said back in July . “You’re not going to get this (winning a Super Bowl) easily. And not being one of the (vaccinated teams) says there’s other things to a great number of people on this team that are more important than winning championships and that makes me worried.”
At least, he’s consistent.