Cooper Winston Helfet (born June 2, 1989) is an American former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player who was a

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in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL). He played

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for the

Duke Blue Devils The Duke Blue Devils are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Duke University, located in Durham, North Carolina. Duke's athletics department features 27 varsity teams that all compete at the N ...

and was signed by the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West division. The club entered the NFL a ...

as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

in 2012.

Early life

Helfet attende
Mark Day School
for elementary and middle school and Redwood High School, where he played football, basketball, and lacrosse. As a senior, he recorded 42 receptions for 811 yards and earned first-team all-conference honors. He was lightly recruited by college football scouts, only receiving attention from FCS football programs including the

University of San Diego The University of San Diego (USD) is a Private university, private Catholic Church, Catholic research university in San Diego, California, United States. Chartered in 1949 as the independent San Diego College for Women and San Diego University ...

and various

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

programs. However, he committed to

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

on a full lacrosse scholarship.

College career

Johns Hopkins University

Helfet accepted a full lacrosse scholarship to

, where he played lacrosse for the Blue Jays in the fall of 2007. After one semester at Johns Hopkins, Helfet transferred to

Santa Rosa Junior College Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC) is a public community college in Santa Rosa, California with an additional campus in Petaluma and centers in surrounding Sonoma County. SRJC is governed by the Sonoma County Junior College District. History F ...

with hopes of pursuing a football career.

Santa Rosa Junior College

Helfet started his collegiate career at

in Santa Rosa, California. He was one of the very few junior college players ever to transfer to

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

Duke University

In his junior year, which was his first season at Duke, he was named as an honorable mention All-ACC. In his senior season, he was among the players named to the 33-member watch list for the John Mackey Award. He was selected to the pre-season All-ACC by both Lindy's Sports second-team and

Athlon Sports Parade Media (previously known as AMG/Parade and Athlon Media Group) is a publisher founded in 1967 that is based in Nashville, Tennessee. Nashville's Spencer Hays was its majority stockholder. It was purchased by The Arena Group in 2022 and no ...

third-team also prior to his senior season.

Professional career

Seattle Seahawks

On May 16, 2012, he signed with the

as an undrafted free agent. On August 31, he was released. On January 17, 2013, he re-signed with the Seahawks to a futures contract. On August 31, 2013, he was released. On September 2, 2013, he was signed to the practice squad. On February 5, 2014, he was signed to a reserve/future contract. He would remain on the Seahawks for the 2015 season and part of the 2016 season.

Oakland Raiders

On October 11, 2016, Helfet was signed to the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team based in Oakland, California, from its founding in 1960 to 1981, and again from 1995 to 2019 before Oakland Raiders relocation to Las Vegas, relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan ...

' practice squad. He signed a reserve/future contract with the Raiders on January 9, 2017. On July 25, 2017, the Raiders placed Helfet on the Non-Football Injury List. He was released on September 2, 2017.

References

External links

Duke Blue Devils bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Helfet, Cooper 1989 births Living people American football tight ends Duke Blue Devils football players Oakland Raiders players People from Kentfield, California Players of American football from Marin County, California Seattle Seahawks players Redwood High School (Larkspur, California) alumni