“Well, you never suit up to lose, right?” Cooks said on Adam Schefter’s podcast, per the Dallas Morning News. “And so you know that No. 1 pick is out there, but at the end of the day, you go out between those white lines you’re putting out your resume, so as a competitor you’re not going out there saying ‘I’m not going to give them my all because I want the Texans to have the No. 1 pick.’ You go out there, you give it your all, and let the chips fall where they fall, and they just happen to be one of those situations where it was a nail bitter, and most people were probably like, ‘Wait, why are you guys winning?’ We don’t play to lose, at least from a player’s standpoint.”
We’ve said repeatedly over the years that players can’t — and shouldn’t — step on the gridiron thinking or wanting to lose. The game is too punishing for that mentality. In a league full of competitors, they’re wired to compete every rep.
Cooks was open about not wanting to be part of another rebuild this year. Following a trade from Houston to Dallas, the wideout won’t have to be worried about that sort of talk from Jerry Jones’ franchise.