Wide receiver Amari Cooper’s 61st NFL touchdown was the quickest of his career, and he got an assist from former Alabama teammate Tony Brown.
A member of the Cleveland Browns’ practice team, Brown did not play in the first two games of the 2024 season. But Cleveland elevated Brown on Saturday to active status for Sunday’s game, and he made his first appearance in his seventh NFL season on the Browns’ coverage unit for the opening kickoff against the New York Giants.
A cornerback, Brown caused Giants running back Eric Gray to fumble on the kickoff return, and Cleveland safety Grant Delpit recovered the loose football at the New York 24-yard line.
On the Browns’ first snap from there, quarterback Deshaun Watson threw a touchdown pass to Amari Cooper as Cleveland took a 7-0 lead 11 seconds into the game.
Twelve of Cooper’s touchdowns have been scored in the first quarter during his career, and his earliest before Sunday had been 2:11 into the game, which happened twice – on a 68-yard pass from quarterback Derek Carr in the Oakland Raiders’ 38-33 victory over the Baltimore Ravens on Sept. 20, 2015, and on an 8-yard pass from Carr in the Raiders’ 26-16 victory over the Tennessee Titans on Sept. 10, 2017.
Brown’s first season at Alabama was Cooper’s final season with the Crimson Tide in 2014, when the team won the SEC championship.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
