Cooper opens up about largely private backstory
FRISCO, Texas — Amari Cooper hit up a local suit store recently to shop for game day. Dallas Cowboys players are required to dress up, and their arrival at the stadium is treated like a virtual fashion show on social media.
The salesperson kept bringing him pairs of shoes to go with the looks. “No,” Cooper rejected them, “no.” His childhood friend who was visiting spied one pair and started laughing, Cooper recounted.
They looked like Cooper’s old “church shoes.”
Growing up in the west Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, Cooper was the youngest of five, and he owned only one pair of shoes at a time. He wore them for church, but also for school, for everyday, for playing football.
“They were my everything shoes,” the wide receiver who changed the course of the Cowboys’ season said in a recent interview with The Dallas Morning News. And, as he explained it, the shoes “talked,” meaning the sole separated from the rest of the shoe and flapped.
“My mother, she used to buy super glue to glue the part back on,” Cooper said. “But I was playing football ... so I would shake and run. They would always come back loose and the glue would be showing.
“It’s kind of funny now. But all my friends remember that.”
The memory is a glimpse into Cooper’s backstory that surprisingly remained largely private as he emerged from a low-income area and football hotbed to become part of the University of Alabama dynasty and the No. 4 overall pick in the NFL draft in 2015.
The Cowboys deemed the 24-year-old, two-time Pro Bowler their missing piece and worthy of the 2019 first-round draft pick they gave the Oakland Raiders to get him. When the trade was made Oct. 22, the Cowboys were 3-4. The 7-2 finish to the regular season and wild-card playoff game Saturday night against Seattle at AT&T Stadium — another chance for a franchise starved for postseason success — seemed almost fantastical at the time.
Cowboys and their fans continue getting to know Cooper, the gifted route runner with game-breaking ability who is thoughtful and economical with his words. But Michael Irvin is already convinced. The Cowboys’ Hall of Fame receiver said he sees Cooper joining running back Ezekiel Elliott, 23, and quarterback Dak Prescott, 25, as the core of the Cowboys’ offense for the next decade.
“Amari, his personality, the way he is away from the football field, I knew he would fit perfectly with the kind of leader Dak is and a young Ezekiel Elliott,” Irvin said. “You have a young quarterback, that’s the best thing you can give him — a guy that is so great at getting in and out of his cuts ... knowing that he’ll be wide open.
“He’s such a great fit and now these guys can play together hopefully for the next nine, 10 years. And hopefully do a lot of winning. It’s a great combination.”
Cowboys fans immediately took to crooning “Cooooooooop” after big plays. Cooper’s teammates did it too, recently, when coach Jason Garrett selected No. 19 to lead the team in jumping jacks at the start of practice, a prized ritual of Garrett’s.
But Cooper does not know the man whose name he carries. Terrance Cooper, his father, is incarcerated in Florida state prison. According to public records, Terrance was found guilty of burglary of an unoccupied dwelling in May 1996, when Amari wasn’t yet 2. He received a 30-year sentence because he was ruled to be a habitual felony offender. His projected release date is June 17, 2022.
“So I never knew him, never went to visit him,” Cooper said. “It doesn’t (bother me) because I don’t know him. Obviously it did when I was younger. I used to always be like, ‘Where’s my dad?’ You would see guys getting picked up from school and stuff like that. But after awhile, nah.”
Cooper’s world was made up of a small square in his neighborhood. His home, his elementary school, the local park and community center were all within a few blocks.
Cooper attended The Barnyard, a nonprofit organization that provides free after-school and summer programs, since he was 5. Travis Swain, the neighborhood services coordinator at the time, said it was Cooper’s second home. Cooper was always running around with a basketball or football.
“Everything was really competitive,” Cooper said. “We used to always do field day, relays. Races. I was always just naturally good at those things. So when I started playing football, I used some of those traits.”
Swain recalled the pick-up football games played on the tennis courts. They would have “bowl games” for whatever holiday was coming up, from the Valentine’s Day Bowl to Christmas Bowl.
Cooper remains so fond of The Barnyard that he donates books — and, because it’s important to him, shoes.
Ashley Williams, one of Cooper’s three older sisters, said the kids who used to give Amari a hard time about his “talking” shoes “can’t say anything now.”
Michelle Green, Cooper’s mother, used to do hair, and clients came to the house on Saturday mornings. So Williams and her sisters and their friends would go to the park to watch Cooper’s youth league games.
“I’ll never forget the touchdown he scored from one end of the field to another,” Williams said.
Cooper said playing receiver always felt natural to him.
“That’s all just God given,” he said. “When someone did a route, I was always able to emulate exactly how they did it.”
Cooper transferred to Miami Northwestern High School, in Liberty City. The football program is renowned for the championships and NFL talent that it’s produced in a city known for taking football seriously.
One of Cooper’s quarterbacks there? NFL quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, currently with the New Orleans Saints.
Cooper fit in, even though “he put himself right in the fire” by enrolling at the competitive powerhouse, said Luther Campbell, who was the school’s defensive coordinator. Campbell, also known as “Uncle Luke,” is the former star of the rap group 2 Live Crew and immersed in the youth football scene in Miami.
But Cooper dealt with a hip injury as a junior and didn’t have much to show college recruiters.
“I was really worried,” Cooper said. That changed when he tried out for the South Florida Express, a well-known 7-on-7 team. Founder Brett Goetz said Cooper stood out immediately, despite the team being loaded.
After Cooper dominated at a tournament near Tampa, the word was out.
“I’m getting on the bus and guys are showing me Rivals and stuff,” Cooper said of the recruiting website. “’Look! They’ve got you on there, you’re a threestar now!’ I’m like, ‘Wow, really?’ “