After illustrious EWU career, Seattle WR Cooper Kupp earns second Super Bowl title

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – In a buzzing auditorium in Alabama, nobody really knew who Cooper Kupp was. It was the 2017 Senior Bowl, back when Kupp was a largely anonymous wide receiver out of Eastern Washington, and when they shook his hand, members of the Mobile community had to guess what position he played.

Are you a punter?

A kicker?

“I remember being like, it’s OK. This is OK,” Kupp said. “I’m so excited about the path I have before me, that’s taken me here. It’s incredible.”

If Kupp was OK with that, he must be thrilled with where he is now: two-time Super Bowl champion.

Once with the Los Angeles Rams and now once with the Seattle Seahawks, who captured the Super Bowl 60 title with a 29-13 win over the New England Patriots at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday evening.

On the game, Kupp hauled in six catches for 61 yards, both tops for Seattle. It was his best outing of the postseason, which Seattle rolled through for its first championship since 2014, back when Kupp was still in the midst of breaking out in Cheney. In fact, he hadn’t caught that many passes in a game since early October.

Few will remember this game as an offensive showcase for Seattle, which didn’t score its first offensive touchdown until the opening moments of the fourth quarter. More realistically, this game will be remembered for what it really was: an offensive slog, a defensive showcase, a game so barren of exciting offense that the anticipation for Bad Bunny’s halftime performance was much more palpable than anything that could have happened on the field.

But when the Seahawks got on the board, Kupp found himself in the center of the action, just as he normally does. In the first quarter, on one of the many Seattle drives that ended in a field goal, Kupp reeled in a 23-yard pass from quarterback Sam Darnold before he was ushered out of bounds. On the same type of drive later in the game, Kupp hauled in another, this one a 7-yard reception.

In fact, Kupp joined rare company at the conclusion of this one: He and Jerry Rice are the only two receivers in league history to win an Offensive Player of the Year and multiple Super Bowl titles.

“You have so much respect for the people that have come before you,” Kupp said, “and the difficulty of this league is ever-evolving. It’s ever moving forward. If you pause for a second, it passes you by. So for all these guys, to have your name in any conversation with Jerry Rice, you’re in a good place.”

In his debut season in Seattle, where he signed last offseason after starting his career with an eight-year stay with the Rams, Kupp finished as the team’s second-leading receiver. In the regular season, he finished with 47 catches for 593 yards and two touchdowns. With one exception, those were the lowest totals of his career.

It’s clear Kupp isn’t the same receiver he was earlier in his NFL career, definitely not the same he was at EWU, where he set 15 FCS, 11 Big Sky and 26 EWU records in his illustrious 52-game career, all as a starter.

But if nothing else, he proved that he can still be a top receiver on a championship NFL team, which isn’t the kind of career that comes across the league all that often. Heck, it very seldom happens at Eastern Washington, a small school in the state he calls home.

“Being a part of this organization, we stepped in, and it wasn’t smooth, you know?” Kupp said. “It wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t sunshine and rainbows. But day after day, my family showed up for me, and the guys on this team, the coaches, day after day coming willing to work, coming in and caring about the guy next to me. It was Sam. I’ve never run-blocked more in my life, but I had so much fun this year. It was such a joy. The relationship with the guys in one year are so special, so unique. I’m just incredibly thankful.”

Then he added this about his younger years, his time at Eastern, his time being nameless in the middle of Alabama: “I didn’t dream about just making it to the NFL. I dreamed about coming to the NFL and doing great things. I don’t know if you’d asked me then – I doubt I would have said what I really believed. But you dream of these things. You dream about being able to go out and do something really special.”

These days, there’s less confusion about the position Kupp plays.

There should be even more certainty about his resume.