‘Newest’ Chicago Bear Has A Tiny Growl

A Steelers assistant mistook him for a Bears special teams coach and the Bears public relations man very nearly asked him to fetch some water. But Scott Couper took it all in stride Tuesday as he spent his first official day as a Bear.

Couper, a native of Glasgow, Scotland, and the man they call “Dr. Scoops,” is the Bears’ designated “guest player” this week in Dublin, one of two World Football League players assigned to practice and play in Sunday’s American Bowl game for the Bears and the Steelers.

Couper, the WFL National Offensive Player of the Year at wide receiver for the Scottish Claymores (there are seven national players from the host country on each WFL team), caught 23 passes for 239 yards and one touchdown. “I’m obviously no deep threat,” he cracked.

He lists his “fighting weight” at 170 pounds on a 6-foot frame, but adds, “That’s with my cleats on.”

And with a backpack strapped to him, he could have easily been mistaken for another college student lazing about the campus of University College Dublin.

But Couper, a 27-year-old Ph.D in polymer chemistry, was eager, if not a bit apprehensive, to suit up for the Bears and go through a day of light drills with his “new” team.

“I can’t wait, but I’m starting to feel nervous,” Couper said. “My first year with the Claymores, I almost died when I got off the plane. I had never seen human beings quite so huge. These guys are bigger and I can’t believe there’s 80 of them. I’m just going to try to survive.”

Playing in a league in which the base salary is $15,000, Couper works for the team during the off-season, promoting the sport’s development in Scotland. He said he took up the sport as a hobby at age 13, pursuing it on amateur teams during his college years before joining the WFL three years ago.

He admits to not seeing a whole lot of the Bears (Scotland, like Ireland, airs one NFL game a week on television and the Bears have not been one of the featured teams lately), and idolizes San Francisco’s Jerry Rice.

Couper said he doesn’t have high hopes of actually making any sort of impression. “The way I see it, if I sat on the sideline or if I played in the whole game, it would be a great end to a great week, just to see the top level in the sport,” he said.

Bears coach Dave Wannstedt promised he would play.