Former Cowboys star Michael Irvin had plenty to say about current Dallas receiver Amari Cooper not being vaccinated against COVID-19.
Cooper missed one of the Cowboys' biggest games of the season in a 19–9 loss to the Chiefs on Sunday after testing positive for COVID-19 on Friday. The four-time Pro Bowler will also miss the Thanksgiving game against the Raiders since unvaccinated players must quarantine for 10 days.
"I don't know what word to put on it, but I’m absolutely hot about it,” Irvin told TMZ Sports. “Are you joking?"
". . . I got a guy who makes $21 million on the bench at home not playing. It’s crazy."
While quarterback Dak Prescott defended Cooper's over his decision to not receive the vaccine, Irvin was not as diplomatic. The three-time Super Bowl champion said Cooper didn't do what he needed to improve the team's chances of winning.
"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.
"You're gonna get vaccinated to try to mitigate it best you can. Now you could still get it even after you get vaccinated but it's a different percentage chance of you getting it. And I need you to get that different percentage chance. I'm so hot at Amari Cooper for not being on that field."
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones also shared his disappointment over the situation in an interview with radio station 105.3 The Fan.
"It is a 'we' thing when you walk into the locker room," Jones said on Tuesday. "You can't win individually. This is the classic case of how it can impact a team. And this popped us. This did pop us."
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