Chris Cooley Speculates Scot McCloughan Isn't Allowed To Speak To The Media Because He Relapsed

WaPo - Over the past few weeks, several Redskins reporters — including The Post’s Mike Jones — observed that Redskins GM Scot McCloughan was not being allowed to speak with the media. This seemed a bit odd, because there’s no shortage of appropriate questions. 

Media access issues typically put fans to sleep — or prompt an anti-media backlash. But McCloughan is both the team’s general manager and, for many fans, its most trusted decision-maker. So many people wondered why he would not be permitted to speak.

ESPN 980’s morning drive program tackled this question Tuesday morning. And Chris Cooley — the tight-end-turned-radio-host, who also serves as the team’s color analyst, and is on the payroll — offered a fairly stunning possibility.

“You start to wonder, what the hell is going on here?” Cooley asked. “And I start to look at this and say, ‘Do we not trust what Scot McCloughan is going to say to the media, and is that why he’s not allowed to talk to the media?’ And if we don’t trust what he’s going to say to the media, why don’t we trust what he’s going to say to the media? Now, if you look at the history of Scot McCloughan, I think the one thing that you’d immediately start to flush out as to why we don’t trust what he’s going to say is that he’s had a drinking problem over his entire career. And so you ask right away, is he drinking?”

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I have a hot take here- wilding speculating about a recovering alcoholic isn’t a great idea. There could be a billion reasons why Scot McCloughan isn’t talking to the media, and one of them very well could be because he relapsed, but I haven’t a clue how Cooley feels it’s his place to bring it up. Because who wins here- either Cooley is right and he just shamed a recovering alcoholic for no benefit, or he’s wrong and looks like a ginormous asshole for assuming it. It’s just a stupid thing for a team employee to say about someone who has a history of alcoholism.

Now I will say this, in Cooley’s defense- he’s paid to talk about the Redskins. It’s truly bizarre that GM SM has a gag order on him. The longer he doesn’t talk, especially during such an important offseason, the more questions that will be asked. So speculating that Scot relapsed, while it’s shitty, isn’t exactly a wild, hot take. It’s irresponsible, yes. But is is molten lava crazy? Not at all.

The thing with Cooley is he loves trying to get attention like this, he’s just not great at it. While guys like Stephen A and Skip can yell nonsense and troll, Cooley a lot of times comes off as a dick.

Hopefully Scot didn’t relapse. I’m sure Cooley will be told to apologize, and everyone will move on.