Game respects game.
When you look at Brian O’Driscoll you’re looking at the greatest Irish rugby player of all time and someone in the conversation for all time great.
When you look at Colm Cooper it’s the same thing, he may go down as the best player to ever play Gaelic football.
They’re two legends of the game and both of which have been honoured over the years.
Well, Cooper is having a testimonial dinner to celebrate his illustrious career that included five All-Ireland titles and eight All-Star awards but it has caused a bit of a stir.
The reason being is that the Dr.Crokes man is going to financially benefit out of it, Cooper has openly admitted that over half of the funds raised will be going to charity but he will profit from the event which has meant some peers, including Joe Brolly, have questioned the testimonial and the fact it goes against the values of the GAA and its amateur status.
The former Leinster and Irish international has come to the defence of his fellow Irish man and took to Instagram to defend the ‘Gooch’:
“No idea what all the hoo haa about this legend having a Testimonial is. If ever a man deserved to be honoured with one, this is the guy.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BaJkqxHjwIT/?taken-by=13rianodriscoll
Cooper recently appeared on the Late Late Show and said that Brolly has since been in contact with him to apologise the reaction has gone “overboard” but the RTÉ pundit took to Twitter to refute the claims:
I didn't apologise to Colm for anything I said. I stand by every word. I said I didn't intend him to be demonised as a result.
— Joe Brolly (@JoeBrolly1993) October 6, 2017
This is a serious principled debate. I said face to face to Colm he was wrong in doing this. I stand by that absolutely
— Joe Brolly (@JoeBrolly1993) October 6, 2017
It maybe is no major surprise that Cooper has the support of Brian O’Driscoll after the Kerryman revealed that attending both O’Driscoll and Ronan O’Gara’s testimonials were inspirations for doing it for a GAA player.
The testimonial will take place on 27 October at the Intercontinental Hotel in Dublin.
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