July 26th, 2007 
Stephen Rhodes 
Posted in 
Len Pasquarelli of ESPN is reporting that the Oakland Raiders have waived troubled safety Jarrod Cooper, a sixth year safety. Cooper was suspended last week for a violation of the NFL’s steroid policy, which hastened his release from the team. This transaction could quite possibly end the career of Cooper, a special teams ace for the Raiders, but beset by off-the-field problems.
Cooper was suspended for four games and lost six game checks while a Carolina Panther; at that time he was charged with with driving while impaired. He was susequently released by the Panthers after being accused of providing false information to a police pofficer in 2004. Once upon a time, his most recent suspension would have taken from Cooper approximately one-fourth of his season’s pay ($270,588), but he would have been allowed to report to camp, play through the offseason and then sit out the 4 games required.
But apparently, Raiders head coach Lane Kiffin wanted no parts of Cooper in training camp, which starts on Thursday. Also factor in the “get-tough” policies NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell put into place, and you suddenly have an unemployed player who obviously used some bad judgement. Even after the 4 game suspension lapses, I don’t see teams exactly putting Cooper on their wish list.
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