Two years after Chip Kelly made the decision to keep Riley Cooper following the release of a video of Cooper shouting a racial slur at a concert, the incident is still raised whenever the topic of Kelly and race is discussed. Kelly said that the backlash he receives regarding race and his decisions “could be” connected to keeping Cooper, but he doesn’t regret that decision or spend time trying to figure out how the connection is made.
“I think that Riley made a mistake,” Kelly said Tuesday. “That’s part of it. And we all backed him. …That’s part of being in an organization.