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Philadelphia Eagles’ cornerback and former Hawkeyes all-american Cooper DeJean returned to Iowa City to host his first youth camp at Kinnick Stadium. Kids 2nd through 8th grade got to participate in drills and interact with DeJean and some of his former Hawkeye teammates.
DeJean shared the coolest part of the day was having the camp at the place he played his college football.
“Being able to do it in Kinnick, that’s awesome.” DeJean said. “Getting these kids this experience, hopefully they had fun. I enjoyed it, hopefully can do the next year.”
DeJean then shared his thoughts on becoming Eagle, hearing his name called 40th overall on day two of the NFL draft.
“I was hoping to go the first day but that’s just not how it worked out,” DeJean said. “I landed in a great spot. You know, Philadelphia was a place I wanted to be and I’m happy where I ended up. I get the opportunity to play football and that’s all you can ask for.”
From playing high school football in a city with less than 1,000 people to a top five market in America, DeJean is relishing the chance to live outside of the state of Iowa for the very first time in his life.
“It’s crazy,” DeJean said. “The fans out there are wild, and I love it. They’re passionate. It’s just like the Iowa fans. I’ve never lived outside Iowa. Philly will be a change for me, but I’m looking forward to it.”
“For the first time you don’t have anything outside of football. You don’t have anything to do. You don’t have school. So, you really have create your own schedule. That’ll be a tough part of the transition.”
The Hawkeyes compete for four trophy games every fall. The Eagles only play for Super Bowls, but the Eagles-Cowboys rivalry is one that has DeJean fired up. However, he learned of the intensity of that one the hard way.
“One of my boys that I trained with during the draft, he posts a picture. He plays in Dallas, and I reposted on my on my Instagram story. I was getting so much hate in my DMs from Philly fans. So, I learned that pretty quick. But I’m excited to play in those rivalry games. Obviously, the divisional games, you play them twice a year. It’ll be fun.”