Amari Cooper latest Raiders player to go back to school, get his college degree

It’s grad week. And a couple of Raiders players have finished their goal of getting a college degree from their alma maters. The latest is Amari Cooper who left school after his junior season at Alabama in 2015 to enter the NFL draft, where he was selected at 4th overall. Raiders former 3rd round pick Gabe Jackson also walked at his Mississippi State college graduation.

Three or four years may seem like a lot to complete one year of college, but when one must devote as much time to their professional careers as Cooper and Jackson have, there isn’t a lot of time to take classes.

A lot of NFL players go back and finish their degrees, even though in many cases they clearly don’t need to being that they have their careers. But a lot of them wait until after their NFL career is done before pursuing it.

Jackson and Cooper put in the work to chip away at their courses over the past few years to earn the right to get their degrees now. Kudos and much respect to both of them for a tremendous accomplishment.