Chris Cook’s felony charges from last year prevented him from playing any games, or participating at all with team activities, following his initial arrest. Now, he is eager to get back to the field of play.
“I’m more excited than I ever have been to come back to Mankato,” Cook said.
Cook apparently recognized how serious the charges were and how poor behavior off the field could impact his career.
“I definitely had doubts that I would even be playing football again,” Cook said on Thursday. “I’m just blessed to be in this position and very thankful for the position that I’m in and to be able to play football again.”
Cook also talked about how hard it was for him to not be on the field with his teammates, after recognizing in previous interviews that he made things difficult on his teammates by landing himself behind bars.
The Vikings showed incredible patience and generosity in sending Cook home with pay following the incident with his girlfriend, and the best possible outcome of the way they handled that situation is for Cook to truly be a changed man moving forward.
Another off-field issue that continues his pattern of finding himself in trouble, however, will almost certainly end his career as a Minnesota Viking.
View Comments
There will forever be the question of when to give someone a second or third chance, and when to draw the hard line. I think Frazier and company have shown some good judgement in this area so far. Leslie has shown that he wants to use his position to positively effect young men, and I applaud him for that. We'll never really know the outcome for several years, but the Chris Cooks and Jerome Simpsons will be interesting to watch for more than one reason over the next few years. For everyone's sake, I hope they do well. Meanwhile, I will gladly give Coach Frazier the benefit of the doubt.
well he seems to understand that he exteremly lucky...and i hoe his second chance was well placed..for his sake and the teams...time for him to right some wrongs
WTF Spielman, we are doing a Roll Call in the forums section. If you would like to participate go to the Forums section, under general, look for roll call.