Super Bowl winner Cooper DeJean spotted at Kentucky Derby party
Cooper DeJean celebrated his wildly successful rookie season with the Philadelphia Eagles at FanDuel's Kentucky Derby party over the weekend.
Asked which celebrity he still hopes to hang out with, the former Iowa defensive back told FanDuel he wanted to meet Super Bowl-winning tight end Rob Gronkowski.
'[He's] always a good time,' the reigning Defensive Rookie of the Year said of Gronkowski.
DeJean is a 2024 second-round pick who helped the Eagles beat the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX with his first career interception return for a touchdown.
It was one of several key plays for the Eagles defense in the 2024 postseason. Later in Super Bowl LIX, linebacker Zack Baun picked off the Chiefs' Patrick Mahomes deep in Eagles' territory.
DeJean was also asked to name the most underrated player in the NFL and didn't hesitate to point to teammate Reed Blankenship.
'People don't understand what he does for our defense,' DeJean said of the 26-year-old Eagles safety, who was recently praised by Donald Trump at a White House meeting with the President.
DeJean looks poised for more snaps in 2025 after the Eagles released veteran starter Darius Slay. Now, either DeJean or Kelee Ringo will likely start opposite Quinyon Mitchell in Philadelphia.
The Eagles are bringing some major contributors back from their Super Bowl-winning defense. The team picked up the fifth-year option on massive defensive tackle Jordan Davis last week, and previously retained Baun on a three-year deal with $51 million.
Baun finished fifth in the AP Defensive Player of the Year voting, earning a pair of first-place votes.
The Kentucky Derby took place the same weekend as Formula One's showpiece of the Miami Grand Prix.
While Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, Gordon Ramsay, and Lisa chose to spend their time in Florida, DeJean, Adams, and others such as Livvy Dunne chose the big sporting event in Kentucky, where Sovereignty won the first leg of the Triple Crown.
Trainer Bill Mott won his first Derby in 2019, also run on a sloppy track, when Country House was elevated to first after Maximum Security crossed the finish line first and was disqualified after a 22-minute delay.
Journalism found trouble in the first turn and jockey Umberto Rispoli moved him to the outside. He and Sovereignty hooked up at the eighth pole before Sovereignty and jockey Junior Alvarado pulled away.
The winner covered 1 1/4 miles in 2:02.31.
Rain made for a soggy day, with the Churchill Downs dirt strip listed as sloppy and horse racing fans protecting their fancy hats and clothing with clear plastic ponchos.
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Powys County Times
12 hours ago
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Scotsman
12 hours ago
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Doohan comes in and could make debut against Liechtenstein Sign up to our Football newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Scotland head coach Steve Clarke revealed Ross Doohan cut short his holiday to answer a goalkeeping emergency. Doohan was on a family trip to Turkey after being part of Aberdeen's Scottish Cup-winning squad but took a detour to Liechtenstein after Angus Gunn and Robby McCrorie suffered injuries on Friday. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Those blows saw 22-year-old Cieran Slicker handed a debut in the seventh minute against Iceland and the Ipswich player endured a difficult night as Scotland lost 3-1. The under-21 international quickly conceded after giving the ball away himself and lost two more soft goals as he struggled with the occasion. Ross Doohan has been called into the Scotland squad. | SNS Group With Craig Gordon, Liam Kelly and Zander Clark already unavailable through injury, Clarke has turned to Doohan for experienced cover. The 27-year-old has been called up along with 18-year-old Bournemouth keeper Callan McKenna – who was already training with the squad – for Monday's friendly in Vaduz. Clarke, who has also lost Scott McTominay and Kieran Tierney to injury, succinctly explained the logistics of his late call-up: 'Phone call. Are you available? Yes. Can you get a flight? Yes. And there he was, in the hotel. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'He'd been away with his family. It says everything, but a chance to join up with the national squad is not something you turn down, not in my book anyway.' Clarke would not divulge who will play in goal in the Rheinpark Stadium but he appears ready to hand Doohan a debut, citing the 'good experience' of a player who has turned out for the likes of Ayr, Ross County, Dundee United, Tranmere and Forest Green. The former Celtic youth player has been tipped to return to Parkhead this summer with his Dons contract set to expire after making 18 appearances as back-up to Dimitar Mitov. 'He's got over 150 senior games,' Clarke said. 'One of the things we were trying to find was somebody who'd trained pretty late into the season, so obviously Ross had been involved in the cup final not that long ago, so it's not as if he's going to be deconditioned or out of practice.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Slicker situation Clarke has tried to build Slicker's confidence after a difficult introduction to international football. 'Obviously we've touched on it,' he said. 'Listen, everybody makes a big thing about Cieran. If you play a young goalkeeper, there's a chance he'll make mistakes. 'If you go through the three goals, we should have dealt much better with the two set plays. The first one's a clearance on his weaker foot that doesn't quite clear the boy in midfield. When the ball comes to the two blocks, we allow the striker to turn and shoot, and nobody was saving that shot because it was a great finish. So that's just the way it is. 'Cieran's a good goalkeeper. Trains well, works well in the camp when he's in. He's just had an unfortunate night. He'll bounce back from it, he'll do well at his club. He needs to play more games, he knows that. He needs to play more games regularly, but he's got a big future in front of him.' Scott McTominay misses out due to injury. | SNS Group Clarke is set to make changes after Friday's defeat left them in dire need of a win to restore confidence ahead of the World Cup qualifiers. 'The team will be freshened up a little bit,' he said. 'Probably a little bit more than I normally do. More than one anyway. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'Scott and Kieran both came into camp carrying some little issues over from the season. I think if we'd had a longer turnaround between the games they might have had a chance, but this is the end of season for those two.
North Wales Chronicle
12 hours ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Ross Doohan ditches family holiday to answer Scotland call for keeper cover
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