Cooper Kupp Continues To Be A Class Act. He Invited A WWII Vet To Sunday's Game, Onto The Field, And Presented Him A Game Worn Signed Jersey

ESPN - As Cooper Kupp ran to the sideline, 97-year-old World War II veteran William Goode's eyes lit up.

Goode's story recently went viral when TikTok influencer Isaiah Garza filmed a video of the pair going to Disneyland together. As of Sunday, the video has been viewed more than 16 million times. One of those views was Kupp, who knows Garza because they are both from Yakima, Washington.

Kupp invited Goode and Garza to the Los Angeles Rams' Week 6 game against the Carolina Panthers and had the opportunity to meet up with both men before the game. Kupp said last week that he thought it was kind of Garza to do something nice for Goode, and when he heard Goode was a Rams fan, he wanted to invite him to the game.

So it feels like only the bad guys and dregs of society get written about nowadays and the “chicken soup for the soul” stories like this get lost and overlooked. Which is crazy because if there were ever a time we need more attention on guys like Cooper Kupp, and less on the Antonio Brown’s of the world, it is now (Yes, I’m fully aware I’m as guilty as anybody of that).

Cooper Kupp is a legitimately good human. He grinded his way into college, into the NFL, and turned himself from a relative unknown 3rd rounder out of Eastern Washington into the best receiver in the NFL. Kupp is heavily involved with St. Joseph’s center, a place for recovering addicts and people down on their luck to help get a chance at a fresh start. He also pours his time and a lot of money into “Forever Found”, an organization that works to end child and sex trafficking. 

The fact he saw this video from another awesome individual, Isaiah Garza, who took 92 year old war veteran William Goode to Disney just to be nice, found out Goode was a huge Rams fan (back from when they were originally in LA) and reached out to the guy to make his day is what this world needs more of. From athletes and people in position of the public eye, where they can make positive examples to people, and from all of us.

Just be nice to people.

Good on Cooper Kupp for continuing to be the man.

p.s. - I saw an interview with Kupp’s dad (who had a brief stint in the league himself back in the day) during last years Pro Bowl where he was talking about raising Cupp and how he practiced with him as a kid. They showed home videos of him sitting on the coach tossing a nerf ball to Cupp and his brother who would come running through a small doorway in the hall into the living room and dive all over the place to catch the ball. Like what you do with a small dog that refuses to let you quit playing fetch. He said they did this for thousands upon thousands of hours and that’s where Cupp got his knack for catching and holding onto impossible to grab balls. It was pretty funny but I looked everywhere and can’t find it to save my life. I wanted to include in this blog so if anybody can find it, please throw in comments.