He doesn't close his eyes to watch mental highlights that show him
catching passes from Peyton Manning or
Donovan McNabb. He doesn't long for the chance to match skills or
wits with any of the game's best defensive backs. He doesn't wonder
about how much larger his bank account might be if he collected a
paycheck in the NFL.
Playing wide receiver in the NFL Europe League
has always been enjoyable enough for Couper (pronounced Cooper), a Scotland
native and member of the Scottish Claymores. He has enjoyed it so much,
in fact, that he is about to do it for a ninth season, which makes him
the longest-tenured player in NFLEL history.
"That's just another way of saying old," Couper, 34, says with a laugh.
To date, he has caught 101 passes for 1,089 yards and a Claymores-record
12 touchdowns. He is one of only seven players in NFLEL history with 100
career receptions.
But experience and numbers aren't all that separates Couper from most
other players in the league -- especially the Americans who have been
allocated to NFL Europe squads by NFL clubs.
"All of them have career goals in American football and probably use
this as a stepping-stone to make it back in the NFL," Couper says. "I
don't have those pretensions. To me, it's more of a pure motivation
that's just for the fun of playing -- basically just loving (being part
of) a team and everything that happens over a course of a season and the
chance to play American football."
 | |
| The joy of playing has kept Scott Couper in NFL Europe for nine seasons. | |
It isn't all that different from the way he felt at age 14, when he
first became hooked on the game while watching the NFL on British
television. Couper admits he didn't have much talent for soccer, the
sport that the majority of boys in his country grow up playing. By 16,
he was a wide receiver for the Glasgow Lions youth American football
team.
At the time, Couper was a big fan of the Washington Redskins. Former
Redskins receiving great Art Monk was Couper's favorite player, which
was why he chose the jersey number he wears to this day -- 81. Couper
will never forget watching Monk in 1984, when he caught 106 passes for
an NFL record that stood for eight years, and in 1992, when he surpassed
Steve Largent to temporarily rank as the league's all-time receptions
leader. Largent was another player Couper admired.
"People used to talk about Steve Largent not being the biggest, not
being the quickest, and that was what everyone always said about me,"
Couper said. "I know my game. My game is the route-runner, the kind of
possession-receiver guy. I try to use my head as much as my body to give
myself an advantage. That means reading defenses, knowing where the
hole's going to be, knowing what (the defense) is doing. I'm not going
to take one for 75 yards."
At 6-foot and 168 pounds, Couper realizes he is fairly small even by
NFLEL standards. But he has always been able to overcome his lack of
size with a strong dose of determination and a deeper understanding of
how the wide receiver position is supposed to be played.
In eight seasons with the Lions, he had 5,428 receiving yards (averaging
16.3 yards per catch), 410 points (on 67 touchdowns and four two-point
conversions), and 295 first downs. His career receiving yards and
touchdowns place him second all-time in the British American Football
Association.
In 1995, Couper pursued a career playing American football in Europe,
while simultaneously completing work on his Ph.D. in chemistry from
Strathclyde University in Scotland. In his first seven seasons, he
established himself as the most successful national player NFL Europe
has ever seen by appearing in a record 67 games, and producing 1,002
yards and 10 touchdowns on 94 catches. His play also earned him a
nickname, "Dr. Scoops," that plays off of his Ph.D. and a combination of
his first and last name.
Still, Couper never once viewed that success as even the slightest
indication he could compete in the NFL. In 1997, he got his first
up-close look at NFL players when the Chicago Bears faced the Pittsburgh
Steelers in an American Bowl preseason game in Dublin. He was given the
chance to practice with the Bears for 10 days and make a cameo
appearance in the game.
"When I saw the athleticism of those guys, I knew I couldn't physically
play on that stage," Couper says. "But I did have three plays in the
game. On the third play, I ran a hook, and the ball got to me just as
the corner and the safety got to me. The corner and the safety won."
After the '01 season, Couper thought he had had his fill as a player, so
he retired. He spent the 2002 season as an in-stadium announcer for
Claymores' home games, working from the sidelines.
"I gave my full focus to that," Couper says. "But standing on the
sideline in the 2002 season and watching the team run on the field
without me … it was horrible, especially when I knew I still had the
ability to be out there doing it. I thought, 'God, I know I could still
be out there doing what these guys are doing. Maybe I did hang them up
too early.'
"Every year, as much as I hate training camp and I hate the rigmarole of
training camp (in Tampa, Fla.), it's at this point where it actually
becomes fun again. The guys fly over here and you get that whole
European experience and just the joy of playing in the games over the
course of the season."
He has competed with and against several NFLEL players who have enjoyed
success in the NFL. Among his former Claymores teammates are
Dante' Hall and Aaron Stecker.
Couper has shared the same field with quarterbacks such as
Kurt Warner, Jake Delhomme and
Jay Fiedler. He watched Darren Bennett
's punts routinely sail above the upper tier of NFL Europe stadiums.
"It's great seeing the guys come in here and maybe growing up a little
just because they're getting the chance to see the world," Couper says.
"That's something a lot of people don't understand is good for the guys."
When he isn't catching passes, Couper is making his pitch for American
football throughout Scotland. He visits schools to encourage youngsters
to participate in flag football. Most of them have seen the game on TV,
yet Couper often finds himself having to dispel a widely held assumption
that the ball is exactly the same as the one used in rugby.
He also delivers messages promoting the benefits of leading a healthy
lifestyle and never putting limits on what a motivated person can
accomplish.
"I tell them, 'If you work hard and you put your mind to things, who
knows how far you can go,' " Couper says. "I grew up playing American
football strictly as a hobby. When I got the chance to go professional
in '95, it was a dream come true.
"It's just been so much fun to actually make a career out of what I did
simply as (a form of) escapism."
