Kelly: 'I Don't' Regret Handling Of Riley Cooper
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Fair or unfair, Chip Kelly is being forced to answer a lot of racial questions lately.
One incident that will never go away, is the time Eagles wide receiver Riley Cooper was caught shouting a racial slur at a Kenn Chesney concert just over two year's ago.
Kelly, entering his first season as NFL head coach at the time, decided to keep Cooper on the team, a decision that often resurfaces every time a traded or released Eagles player mentions Kelly and race in the same sentence.
Kelly says he doesn't regret his handling of the Cooper situation.
"I think he regrets what he did that day every single day," Kelly said of Cooper on Tuesday. "I see that in him. But do I regret what I did in terms of how I handled that? No I don't.
"I think Riley made a mistake. We all backed him. Michael [Vick] did, Jason [Avant] did. That's part of being a team and an organization. I look at that as a specific incident and he was one hundred percent wrong. Those are things that should never be said and I hope he learned his lesson."
After catching 47 balls for 835 yards and eight touchdowns in 2013, Cooper signed a five-year extension worth $22.5 million ($8 million guaranteed).
Last weekend, the Eagles traded cornerback Brandon Boykin, who suggested Kelly is uncomfortable around black players in a text message. Boykin has since clarified his remarks, saying they were about communication, not race.