Oscar and Tanner road trip to Berkeley Springs, West Virginia where they end up trying to fit in at the unforgettable Troubadour Lounge. Along the way, they get a taste of the local food flavors and enjoy the colorful, unique personalities of the local characters.

In my weekly appearance on 106.7 The Fan with Chad Dukes and LaVar Arrington I made some comments regarding Tony Romo. “It's amazing, amazing to watch him choke like that … there's no way that Detroit is gonna drive on you that many times. The only way you're gonna give up that many points is turnovers, right? It was hilarious to watch him throw pick-sixes, too, back to back. I loved it.” The conversation then turned to a hypothetical cage match between Romo and myself, which I insinuated that I would win because of my wrestling background. And now, a joking, lighthearted situation, which in my opinion, has received 15 times the 15 minutes of fame it deserved, warrants my response.

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. Now before the rivalry-igniting defense of my comments, I would like to state a couple of facts:

In a new age where professional athletes can “engage” with their fans like never before, it has become evident that the NFL is an entertainment-based business. Though players earn their worth on the football field, there’s not a player in the league unfamiliar with the media. And as 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.

That said, after seeing the frenzy of peevish Cowboy fan banter over the past 24 hours I have to say that the peculiar defense of “America's quarterback” has completely blown me away. From genius talking heads like Skip Bayless and former Maryland great Norman Esiason to the bible thumping twitter bullies, it's very clear that a cult like group of Dallas supporters has emerged to stand in defense of the epic Tony Romo. To them, my tongue-and-cheek opinions scream sacrilege and idiocy. It’s a funny thing, the way simple lighthearted banter can change gears so quickly, but that’s part of the amazing world of sports fanatics. You don’t want me to be boring, but as soon as I’m entertaining I’m crossing a line. You can’t have it both ways.

Finally, those of you that responded on Twitter, you made this easy. Your clumsy charm and the outpouring of the appalling tweets has inspired me to feed the fire of an NFL rivalry that seems in need the more flame. Thank you for caring so much. I genuinely appreciate you making me the number 1 Google search yesterday. I’d like to give a special thanks to those fans who want to choke me out, burn my house down and not only see me endure career ending injury, but break my neck and die. Clearly football is important to you, you are the people who make the NFL what it is!

I’m aware at this point, that I could choose the high road, but a little pettiness makes for much more fun. Plus, I’m assuming if you tweeted you wouldn’t mind a response. I would have loved to spend more time with more responses because it really was fun, but I just picked a couple. Oh and Skip Bayless, I didn’t forget you. I just haven’t decided if I should hoot and holler on air or take the time to write something nice for you. If you have an opinion either way let me know.

For those of you opposed to profanity, I suggest stopping here:

@Krimm9 Chris Cooley is an absolute joke. He is the most overrated player at his position in FB. He should laugh at his career stats, that is funny!

Yea I’m laughing. 427 catches, 4,704 yards, and 33 touchdowns. I’m on my hands and knees.

@kreutzbag303 @thecooleyzone what have you ever done in your career that gives you the right to talk **** to Romo. You're a bum. Fred Davis owns you.

Google me *****. Also, Fred Davis owns many nice things, but I am not one of them.

@youngnandobaby @thecooleyzone you talk so much **** yet you're garbage now. 2nd string TE struggling to get play time on a struggling offense. #JustRetire

“Shut your mouth. Sh-sh-shut your mouth. You’re just coming off stupid.” I simply referenced my happiness for the outcome of a game. That isn’t “talking ****.”

@thetrovester who TF is chris cooley to rip on anyone? how many rings does he have again? Asshole

Hypocritical statement, but I will flip it just for fun. @thetrovester Who TF are you and how many rings do you have? Genius…

@AhadSRaza I hope you shatter your patella doing ballet with Colt Brennan.

Ahad, I’m extremely concerned with how much my comments bothered you. This definitely wasn’t you most offensive comment and by no means your most idiotic, but I didn’t want to waste more time for the people reading this. Thanks to you I punched the code on my home security system for first time in a long time.

@courtneymahia I want to punch Chris Cooley in his face for slandering Romo like that.

Definition of slander: A malicious, false, and defamatory statement or report. I’m pretty sure slander wasn’t quite the route I choose but I like your fight. If you’re gonna be dumb, ya gotta be tough.

@zachbarton Have lost all my respect for Washington tight end @thecooleyzone. If you talk like a high school nothing that’s all you still are.

Zach, I’m guessing you got picked on a little bit in school. It’s ok, I’m sure you’re a real all-star now. Keep kickin’ ass buddy.

@chestos06 @thecooleyzone and if u are a real man, why challenge someone u out weigh by 40lbs. Be a man and go after Witten or DWare...chump!

Since your twitter picture is of a dog, I’m sure you’re not the worst person in the world. As far as the challenge, I currently weigh 232. The dude weighs 4 pounds less than me, Romo is listed at 228. The challenge seems fair to me. But in the world hypothetical cage matches, if I were “a real man” it probably wouldn’t be Witten I’d challenge; it’d be Brock Lesner.

@brad_hankins @thecooleyzone aka Chris Cooley is a little *****. I’d fight that goofy dick sucker right now if I saw him

Seriously Brad, I guarantee you wouldn’t. I literally lock down a guarantee. You sounded tough for your friends though. So that’s cool.

@mitchinwitchita if u spent more time practicing than runnin' ur mouth, maybe u wouldn't be on the bench. #66yds #washedup#loser

Not quite sure if you’ve watched any games, but I’m not quite on the bench. I may be on your fantasy bench and that does break my heart a little bit, although it makes me smile that you care enough about me to look up my stats and respond to me.

@yimdawg chris cooley is an asshole.

Simple and to the point, I like it. Many of my friends concur with this.

@srobinson3708 @thecooleyzone what? Are you crying again coozie?

Pretty sure I wasn’t crying. Did you hear what I said or did you just jump at the chance to throw “coozie,” around all willy-nilly on twitter? And I know you’re not looking for any advice, but Penthouse Forum isn’t a solid substitute for a good old thesaurus.

@A_PFL_Nigga CHRIS COOLEY IS A ***** ASS *****!!!

Wow! I thought “coozie” was getting thrown around willy-nilly.

@everlastingxxx You are not worthy to swallow Wittens ****.

I’m not quite sure what qualifications you need to become worthy? Explain what you had to do to acquire your status?

Ok, so you get it. The responses are getting more and more offensive and I will stop here. If you did send something I ensure you that I saw it. Thanks again and tomorrow should be fun Skippy.

We have all been touched by cancer in some way ... and we all have the power to make a difference. That's why I have chosen to fight back right here in my own community. The 3rd Annual Cooley’s for the Cure will be held on Monday, October 10. The event will be at Clyde’s in Ashburn. This year proceeds will go to two different organizations:
The IIIb’s - This is a local organization that does amazing things to support women going through cancer treatments.

The Virginia Hospital Center – Reinsch Pierce Family Center for Breast Health.(The video on this website says it all – Tanner and I are guests at the press conference) Amazing, amazing place. They are responsible for saving my life.

Over the past three years, my motto has become “Hope!” We all need to have hope. Live life to the fullest and take advantage of every day. I feel fortunate that I always felt like I had hope. Everyone should be able to have hope.

I hope that you will be able to join me and my family and friends for this wonderful, fun event. Last year it was such a huge success! We had guests including Colt Brennen, Mike Sellers, Reed Doughty, Danny Smith, and more. It’s a great time to hang out, get autographs, purchase items, and win drawings. If you can’t join us, but would still like to donate, just click on the donate link.

Thank you in advance for your support. Together, we will celebrate, remember, and fight back. Nancy Cooley – Cancer Survivor – three years!

This is my story: This year, hundreds of thousands of people will hear the words "You have cancer". On May 16, 2008, I was one of them. On a Friday while driving to work, I received a call from my doctor telling me that I had breast cancer. It was one week before Chris and Christy’s wedding. I had many relatives coming to town that weekend and the next week. Instead of being able to focus on seeing everyone and celebrating Chris and Christy’s wedding, the only thoughts in my head were “I have cancer”. Starting on Monday of the wedding week, my days were as follows: Monday – meeting a breast surgeon and being told that my cancer was Stage 3. Tuesday – meeting a plastic surgeon describing how he could rebuild my body after having the surgery that I would need. Wednesday – having an MRI and PET scan. Thursday – meeting an oncologist telling me about the chemotherapy that I would need to undergo. Friday – the wedding. On Tuesday of the next week, I had an ECHO, heart check, to see if I was strong enough to tolerate the chemotherapy. On Wednesday – I had a small surgery and had a port inserted into my chest for the chemotherapy. On Thursday – I had chemotherapy counseling. On Friday, I had my first chemotherapy treatment, beginning the long process in my journey to treat and beat the evil, fast growing cancer.

My doctors are truly angels! Miracle workers I call them. I want to thank them for the work that they do. They are Dr. Stephanie Akbari, Dr. Steven Davison, Dr. Mary Wilkinson, Dr. Jeffery Moulds, and Dr. Keith Belote. I couldn’t have asked for a more caring team of physicians to help me fight this horrible disease.

I also want to thank my amazing niece, Brooke Brandt, who you all know as the infamous “Beandip”. She gave up four months of her life to take care of me during the chemo and to nurse me back to health after the surgery. She never left my side during this time. She is also an angel on earth!

My good friend, Martha Belote, is also an angel here. She has been with me since day one. Taking me to doctor appointments, sitting at the hospital for hours while I had surgery – up to six now (over 30 hours), taking me to chemo and radiation treatments, covering me at work, but most importantly always being there with good wine and great food.

Thank you to my sons, Chris and Tanner, who are my whole life and the reason that I have the strength to fight this disease. I am so proud of both of them. They are outstanding young men. I want to be around to see my grandchildren and to be a part of their lives. There are many more family, friends, and students that have helped me to have the strength and courage to make it through each day. Thanks to all of you!

I went through four months of chemotherapy, surgeries – six now, and 28 radiation treatments over the past three years. Reconstruction has been ongoing to try to rebuild my broken body. I know that these treatments would not be available without the help of the money raised for research of this horrible disease.

During the past three years, I have met many women who are battling cancer – Kathy, Noel, Regina, Karin, Della, and Kim. These are six women who reached out to me after learning that they had breast cancer. They are all mothers, daughters, sisters, and wives. I’m so grateful that they too have successfully battled cancer so far. There are so many more people, not just women that are battling cancer. We need an end to this madness!!





On Monday, October 10th at Clyde's in Ashburn we are hosting the 3rd annual Cooley's for the Cure event. Even though the last two years were a great time and big success, Events in the City is helping this year, so plan on it being the best yet.

Tickets are $65 dollars and that covers your food, beer, wine, and soft drinks. Doors open at 7 and the event ends at 10. We should have a few players hanging out and some big auction items for purchase. Please use the paypal button to purchase your ticket. After you buy your ticket, print off your receipt and bring it with you to the event. You will get a wrist band at the door. You can purchase your ticket or donate using the buttons below. Thanks for your support!!

Buy Tickets1 $65.002 $130.003 $195.004 $260.005 $325.006 $390.007 $455.008 $520.009 $585.0010 $650.00

On Monday, October 10th at Clyde's in Ashburn we are hosting the 3rd annual Cooley's for the Cure event. Even though the last two years were a great time and big success, Events in the City is helping this year, so plan on it being the best yet.

Tickets are $65 dollars and that covers your food, beer, wine, and soft drinks. We should have a few players hanging out and some big auction items for purchase. Please use the paypal button to purchase your ticket. After you buy your ticket, print off your receipt and bring it with you to the event. You will get a wrist band at the door.

Buy Tickets1 $65.003 $130.004 $195.005 $260.006 $325.007 $390.008 $455.009 $520.0010 $585.0010 $650.00

Thank you in advance for your support. Together, we will celebrate, remember, and fight back.

Set off 4 days ago to Wyoming from Virginia. Below, in order, is what we managed to capture. I've been posting on SportsBUZZ, and finally made it to a computer so I could post them here. Now off to do some pheasant hunting.

9:20 am: It's the beginning of a 30 hour journey to Wyoming and its going to have to start with a thumbs up. Ryan will be joining me on this trip and he's already bitching.

9:30 am: First stop 711 to fill up on breakfast.

11:23 am: Made it to Pennsylvania

1:01 pm: Lunch time!

2:29 pm: Made it to Ohio

5:42 pm Indiana!

6:56 pm - Up time!

7:02 pm - thinking about just staying in Chicago tonight and hanging with my buddy Ray

Stopped for dinner last night at the Stone Castle Eagle Tavern in Rockford, IL. Best burger ever!

Day 2 2:47 pm - Driving gloves

Passing the Mississippi River...

Day 2 2:54 pm - Minnesota

Day 2 4:12 pm - Oldest working gas pump in America

Day 2 5:06 pm - Girls gone wild South Dakota.

Day 2 7:13 pm

I want to start out by thanking anyone who has ever spent the time to send fan mail my way. I now want to apologize to the fans who sent in mail between 2008 and now because you haven't gotten **** back. Luckily the mail is not lost and in a turn of great fortune, I found over 1000 letters packed into a box in my basement today! It takes a long ass time to read 1000 letters, but once I began there was no stopping. I swear I personally read every letter, signed every card and photo. I'm sure a bunch of people are going to be pretty damn surprised to get their letters back in the the mail.

Please consider if you've sent mail and moved in the last three years, I hope you left a return address. Also taken into consideration was the cost of stamps. When received in 2008, the price of mailing a regular letter was .42 cents, which has now went up .02 cents, but no worries, I have covered all return costs. I'm sure the postal employees will enjoy selling me thousands of 2 cent stamps.

Now I would love to share some of the ups, downs, insanity, genius, lunacy, happiness and fanatical excitement that I enjoyed for most of my day.

Again, thanks to everyone for sending me such kind and thoughtful packages. I swear after sorting through every letter there was not one serious negative message. Keep in mind that the mail was no more recent than 2009 so I may get murdered in the next batch.

- If there are any Costanza envelopes I'm going to be f@%ing pissed. Probably shouldn't have, but I licked about 300 return envelopes. I made it through the day so I think I'm good. The peel and stick envelopes are much better. Buy those.

- Quick apology to all the school extra credit letters. I should have written back to you guys. It's awesome that you choose me for a school project and really cool that you wrote to me. I'm sure a ton of time went into that. I'm also sure that I'm gonna miss the semester deadline on return.

- To Austins Big and Tall. Quit sending me 20% off cards. I don't shop there. I'm sure you have good stuff, but fortunately I fit into the last size in all department stores. 38/34 and XL usually works out just fine in Nordstroms.

- To all Real Estate agents. First of all I have an agent, she's awesome. I also have about four houses in the area. No chance am I going to buy the 7.5 million dollar house in your brochure, or any house for that matter. Real estate goes straight into the trash - I'm pretty sure and by pretty sure I mean 99.9% that no house will be sold through a mail in brochure to Redskins Park.

- Katie, would have loved to attend the princess party on 10/24/09.

- Huge thanks to Karen for the $25.00 check to my scholarship fund. I'm sorry I never got that cashed, but don't you worry any longer, I'll void it for you and make sure I donate $25.00 more this year. So thoughtful.

- Emmitt, I will call or at least text Jason Campbell and Santana tomorrow and tell them what's up for you. It's been a long time coming.

- All the thank you letters to me for our breast cancer charities were very nice. So amazing to hear all the stories of these women. Breast cancer is ****. Keep fighting.

- Inmate mail is almost always a first read. I don't know why I'm fascinated by inmate mail, but I think a lot of the guys are. I had a few of those letters and was a little surprised by the text being quite short. Thought they had more time on their hands.

- To all financial advisers. I am well aware the average career of a NFL player is 3.5 years. I'm also certain that I need to continue to save for my future. I've actually formulated a pretty solid financial plan so I won't be needing any more solicitation via my Redskins fan mail box.

- Miranda - Tell your dad what's up for me. It's awesome that he's been a fan for 20 years. Well, 22 years now.

-I would prefer not to receive religious materials. No bibles, no bible DVD's and for the love of god, no Book of Mormons! I have made a very informed decision on my beliefs and am comfortable with my style of life. I don't go throwing "Religulous" DVD's in your front door because you've been saved, so I would just expect the same.

- Received at less than 10 Flat Stanley cutouts. Pretty wild. Sorry guys, Stanley is a home body. He didn't get out for many pictures.

- I should have counted the football cards I signed. No less that 500. If you want cards signed don't send really cool ones. It's hard for me to part with the awesome cards.

- If you want blue sharpie on your autograph please send blue sharpie in the package. If I grab a black one and sit down with a couple hundred letters, I'm not getting up because Steve's collection requires blue. Just the facts.

- I literally could have attended 25 weddings across the country. Congrats to all the brides and grooms circa 2008. It's almost a certainty I would drank too much and embarrassed your family at the wedding. Everyone has seen the picks from my wedding, so it's probably for the best I didn't come. Although I probably won't attend, if you're having a wedding soon, please keep in mind that an invite is in my top 5 favorite fan mail items. I'll leave the address at the bottom. Wes, your football ticket invites were awesome, but tell your wife she looks like a slut in that Cowboys jersey.

- Listened to the CD from the band "Shitt." Not a huge fan of death metal so I can't give a formal opinion either way. Gotta say though, I was pretty pumped to open this package.

- There is no way so many fans have followed my career since I was at Utah State. It's a nice gesture, but lets be honest here, Utah State football isn't a huge draw for the vast of NFL fans.

- Professional football players getting naked photos in the mail is a myth. I could have sworn when I started receiving fan mail that I was going to be getting all kinds of nasty ****. Have never seen them. Not just in my box, I have never seen one lude photo. Ever.... Lame.

- William - It's awesome being a pro football player. I always dreamed of playing the game I love as a career and the benefits that go with it are unreal. I love playing for the Redskins.

- Jake - The last fish I caught was a trout. I have a boat and go out on the Potomac a ton, but am the most terrible bass fisherman of all time. I also have the worst fishing luck ever. Now I know everyone who has ever caught a fish is saying that they could take me to their special place and dominate fish, but don't buy into it. If you take me fishing we will catch less fish than you have ever before. Proven with more than 20 excellent fisherman. If you know anyone who has ever fished with me they will verify.

- Please write legibly. It's cute if I can tell you less than ten years old, but if you have such ****** hand-writing that you can't even read it yourself, then just type the letter. It's actually faster. And has spell check. (Which I usually don't use.)

- Thanks for all the Birthday and Holiday cards. My birthday is July 11. Feel free to send me a B-day card anytime. I also love the holiday cards. Nice of people. Family photos are a plus.

- Anyways, it was a ton of fun sharing just a couple of the fan mail topics that I find interesting back to all the fans. There is a ton more, so maybe I'll have to do this again in a couple weeks when I continue to get up to date on the rest of the letter. Thanks again to all the people who took the time to write. I know I'm a little sarcastic about some of the stuff, but it's an honor and a privilege to receive all the wonderful mail.

Finally I would like to end with a couple tips to fan mailing.

1. If you want an autograph it would be best to first include the item you want signed.

2. Include a stamped envelope. - And if you really know me include the extra couple cents, cause it may be that long before I get to it. I will never get an envelope, address and stamp it before sending it on its way home. I guess I'm a jerk.

3. I love receiving fan mail, but you gotta make it look different. I definitely go through the strangest looking letters first.

4. Mail to Chris Cooley at 21300 Redskin Park Drive Ashburn Va 20147.

Cheering for the Packers 100% today, but I'm glad someone brought this song to Randle El's attention and that he made this video.

By KEN MAGUIRE

LEESBURG, Va. — On the football field, Washington Redskins tight end Chris Cooley likes to throw his body at defenders, as he did on a go-ahead touchdown Sunday at Jacksonville. But in his suburban house, he prefers throwing pottery — that is, making bowls, mugs and vases.

“Be really careful — they’ll break,” Cooley told a recent visitor who touched a clay bowl that was drying on a table in his basement studio.

Most pieces go to his new gallery here, but this bowl was part of a gift set for his wife, Christy, a former Redskins cheerleader. Until the clay is cooked in a kiln, it is too delicate to handle.

At 6 feet 3 inches and 250 pounds, Cooley is seemingly the opposite of fragile. He is a two-time Pro Bowler and a fan favorite and news media darling for his on-field grit and off-field antics.

Read the rest HERE