Dallas Cowboys’ Amari Cooper never felt resigned Raiders’ coach Jon Gruden was racist

Amari Cooper admits he doesn’t surprise easily.

So the recent revelations about former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden didn’t exactly knock the Dallas Cowboys seven-year veteran off his feet.

Gruden resigned earlier this week after emails he sent while working as an ESPN commentator revealed racist, misogynistic and homophobic language.

Cooper briefly played for Gruden before he was traded to the Cowboys six games into the 2018 season. Cooper said he never thought of Gruden as racist or misogynistic “or anything like that.”

“Just knowing personality types, just knowing Gruden, he’s able to make really quick decisions and sometimes it can be impulsive,” Cooper said. “Sometimes it can be good, sometimes it can be bad.”

Cooper explained Gruden’s personality style in football terms.

“For example, he’s not the type of guy on a fourth down to be hesitant if he’s going to go for it or not and that’s where it’s a good thing,” he said. “He’s not the type of guy to take 15, 20 minutes to decide what he’s going to wear in the morning.”

That quick-trigger, however, can lead to some off-color jokes, crude language, and no punches pulled, Cooper intimated.

“But then on the other hand, it could be a bad thing, impulsive like that I guess,” he said. “you just feel like you have to say something and you just say it without thinking. It’s just his personality, I guess.”

Cooper called Gruden’s resignation unfortunate.

“I still know a couple of players on the team. You lose your head coach it’s just, you’re losing that leadership and you’re losing everything that you built from camp until now,” he said. “But hopefully those guys can rally around each other and get the job done.”

Dak Prescott said he hadn’t read much about the details of Gruden’s ordeal, but cautioned that anyone in a leadership position needs to set an appropriate example.

“I think you have to be sensitive and educated any time that you speak to make sure that you are not hurting somebody and upsetting one race or gender or whatever it is,” Prescott said. “I think it’s important just to love. Me as a leader, the only thing I try to do is to love. To be there for somebody and show support and not show any dislike or any sign of hate or anything of that nature.”