Cowboys WR Amari Cooper fined $15K for attending Mavericks game unmasked
After the Dallas Cowboys' final game of the regular season, Amari Cooper made a public pledge his team would do "everything" it took to avoid a season-devastating COVID-19 outbreak.
Unfortunately, he was still facing a bill for a past transgression.
The Cowboys wide receiver was fined $14,650 by the NFL on Thursday for violating COVID-19 protocols for unvaccinated players by attending a Dallas Mavericks game last week while unmasked, according to ESPN's Todd Archer.
Per ESPN, an unvaccinated player is allowed to attend a sporting event, but only if he sits in a suite with a mask and with no more than 10 people around him. Cooper sat courtside at the Mavericks game against the Golden State Warriors on Jan. 5.
Cooper was also on the sideline at the Cotton Bowl to watch his alma mater Alabama face Cincinnati in the semifinal of the College Football Playoff. He was accompanied by teammates at both sporting events, CeeDee Lamb at the Mavericks game and Trevon Diggs at the Cotton Bowl, but both are vaccinated and are not facing any punishment from the NFL.
In that context, Cooper said the following after the Cowboys beat the Philadelphia Eagles on Saturday last week. From the Dallas Morning News:
“You don’t want to get sick. This is the tournament,” he said after the Cowboys-Eagles game on Saturday night. “We train so hard in the offseason, OTAs, camp, to get to this point. We accomplished that goal thus far. We’re going to do everything we can do to not get sick. If that means isolation, then that’s what that means. Hopefully we can isolate enough to not catch it.”
Cooper missed two games earlier in the season while on the NFL's health and safety protocol, something that did not please Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
