Raiders wide receiver Amari Cooper’s NFL debut took a strange turn on Sunday when he wound up in a tussle with Bengals cornerback Adam Jones in the second quarter.
Jones and Cooper wound up on the ground where Jones ripped Cooper’s helmet off and slammed the back of his head into it before the scuffle was broken up. Jones was penalized for unnecessary roughness, but avoided an ejection.
“Football is a physical game,” Cooper said, via CSNBayArea.com. “Things like that happen. … I feel like the refs didn’t see it well. If they did, they probably would’ve given a harsher penalty.”
Jones said after the game that he was “in the moment” and “just out playing football,” something Cooper didn’t seem to take much issue with when asked if he thought that a harsher penalty should be coming Jones’s way this week.
“I don’t think he should be suspended,” Cooper said. “We were just playing physical. I should’ve been playing physical. Honestly, I didn’t even know I hit my head on the helmet.”
We’ll find out in the next few days if the league agrees with Cooper’s take after making a big deal about cracking down on fighting during the preseason.
