Cooper Manning seems to have no regrets.
The older brother of Peyton and Eli Manning, star NFL quarterbacks who have won three Super Bowls and made 15 Pro Bowl appearances, insists he still feels as if he "has a little bit of skin in the game."
The eldest Manning's revelations were made public in a new ESPN documentary entitled The Book of Manning aired Saturday that also chronicled how fellow former NFL quarterback and dad Archie Manning religiously prepped all his sons to follow in his sizeable footsteps.
Cooper was the first and appeared well on his way to achieving those same accomplishments when the rare spinal condition spinal stenosis that causes numbness in the hands and fingers robbed him of what seemed an almost certain NFL career. At the time he was diagnosed, Manning, a wide receiver, had just committed to attend Ole Miss and was being celebrated as one of the country's most sought-after recruits.
But just like that, it was all gone. "I'm not a jealous guy," Cooper told reporters in the week before Peyton's second Super Bowl of having to now live the game through his brothers exploits. "I feel lucky to have two brothers to cheer for every Sunday. My glass is full as it is. I'm a happy camper. The fact that I have two brother who have been involved in three of the last four Super Bowls is hard to put into words."
Nowadays, Cooper works as energy trader and has an estimated worth of $15 million, according to CelebrityNetWorth.com. So comfortable in his own skin has he become that when dad Archie thought of pulling out of the documentary it was Cooper who stepped forward to save the project.
"Dad initially did some stuff and then decided he just didn't want to do it and put it on hold," Cooper Manning told USA Today's For the Win. "My mother was really the driver to get dad back and say 'let's pursue it.' I think she felt that their grandchildren needed to see a side of him and some of the details they wouldn't see otherwise."
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