Photo by dharmabumx.

After a weekend in which the Washington Redskins hung on to beat the St. Louis Rams while their rivals, the Dallas Cowboys, choked away a huge lead against the Detroit Lions, Redskins tight end Chris Cooley offered these thoughts about the performance of Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo:

I was watching the scoreboard in St. Louis, and I didn’t see that they’d lost really until they end, I thought they blew them out so I kind of stopped paying attention. It’s amazing, AMAZING to watch him choke like that. … It’s hilarious to watch him throw pick sixes, too, back-to-back. I loved it.

For some reason, a player for the Washington Redskins trash talking a player for the Dallas Cowboys counts as news these days — I mean, I’m not sure why — but the talking heads at ESPN and elsewhere were downright determined to make a big deal out of it. So, of course, Cooley got some national blowback. That was expected.

What we didn’t expect is Cooley taking to his blog and just downright eviscerating his critics in a 1,400-word post which is heavy on brutal honesty:

In a league full of glad-handing and ass slapping between competing teams, I actually care about the organization and fan base that has supported me throughout my 8-year career. While I feel an honest respect for all NFL players, I show no remorse in cheering against another team, especially the Cowboys. If it sounded like I was delighted by Tony Romo’s failure last week, I was. Though I have no personal vendetta toward Romo, my feelings for him had nothing to do with me reveling in a divisional foe blowing the biggest 2nd half lead in the history of its proud franchise. […] [A]s a player who has decided to share my real personality with the fan base, I make a clear choice with expressing my political incorrectness as an entertaining attempt to engage as a real person. I will not apologize if my sense of humor and hint of sarcasm is difficult to ascertain by the more serious NFL supporters. I will never make an apology to any offended Dallas fans and I expect every Redskin fan to cheer at the folly of a Cowboy.

Cooley then proceeded to respond to his various Twitter critics one by one — perhaps a questionable media strategy, but an incredibly entertaining one regardless.

It’s not like Cooley — who’s consistently one of the more popular players on the team, needed any additional Redskins cred — but being so willing to offer up such unwavering hatred for Dallas and Tony Romo has to earn him a special place in the hearts of the diehards.