Chris Cooley Retires

[LyricalRico]

Mark Maske and Dan Steinberg of The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Cooley will retire from the NFL and join the Redskins' radio broadcasts as an analyst this season. An official announcement might come as soon as Tuesday.

A two-time Pro Bowl tight end, Cooley played nine seasons in Washington. He was cut before training camp last season but re-joined the team during the year. Cooley publicly said this offseason he was only interested in returning to the field if it was for the Redskins, but they saw him fitting into their broadcast team rather than their 53-man roster. Cooley won't replace legend Sam Huff in the broadcast booth, instead providing periodic analysis throughout the game.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap100000 ... radio-team

One of everyone's favorite players during the Gibbs 2.0 era. Please share your thoughts on Cooley's career, and where he fits in with the greatest Skins receivers of all time. Also, what was your favorite Cooley moment?

Happy Trails, #47!

[zardsfan]

Cooley pre-injuries was a top 5 tight end. Great hands and could really bull his way for yardage after the catch.
Seemed like on third down he was pretty clutch and could pick up that first down even when he received the ball well before the marker. Would have loved to see a healthy Cooley catching balls from a healthy RG3 but it's just not meant to be I guess. Gonna miss the crowd saying "COOOOLLLLEEEEYYYY" every time he made a big catch. Good Luck in the broadcast booth and whatever else life brings you Chris!

[LyricalRico]

Wow, Cooley apparently completely taking over on 980. First doing Skins games, and now this:

In a major shake-up to the D.C. sports-talk radio scene, Red Zebra Broadcasting announced on Tuesday that former Redskins tight end Chris Cooley will replace industry veteran Andy Pollin on its afternoon drive show next week.

The new show — “The Drive, with Cooley and Czabe” — will feature a three-man panel, also including Al Galdi. It will debut on August 1, and will continue to run from 4-7 on weekdays. Yes, if you look real hard, you can see a “47″ in there.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc- ... sports_pop



I did not see that coming. Andy Pollin's been a fixture on 980 as long as I can remember. As for what's next for him, from the same article:

Pollin remains with Red Zebra for now while mulling his options, and will fill in for the vacationing Tony Kornheiser on his morning show starting August 5.

[LyricalRico]

As a follow-up, I'm not feeling Cooley as a radio host at all. I've only listened to a couple of segments, but it's pretty painful IMO. He's the kind of guy that seems cool to have some beers with, but that doesn't really translate to being a professional sports show host.

Czabe also seems to be struggling, both because he seems to have to defer to Cooley and he's also trying to pick up the show artificially because there's no natural banter since Cooley doesn't really have any positions (not even insightful positions, just ANY positions) on actual topics. He's just saying random stuff trying to be funny, and he's really not.