Who is Dallas Cowboys’ QB Cooper Rush?

Cooper Rush’s road to starting for Dallas in Week 8 was long and took a while

There was a fairytale ending to Sunday Night Football for Cooper Rush, his family, and the Dallas Cowboys.

Only it was real. Oh, so real.

The career backup started in place of an injured Dak Prescott and threw for 325 yards and the game-winning TD in the final minute of a 20-16 victory over the Minnesota Vikings.

Coming into Week 8, the 27-year-old Rush had appeared in six games with 58 snaps and attempted three passes. He was 1-of-3 for 2 yards in 2017.

So, who is Cooper Rush?

Per his wiki page:

In 2010 and 2011, he led his team to back-to-back undefeated regular seasons. In 2011, he led his team to the state runner-up title. In the Division 5 regional championship game against Dowagiac Union High School, he set Michigan state records with 5 touchdown passes in one quarter and 8 for the game.

He played college ball at Central Michigan.

As a sophomore, he played in the 2014 Bahamas Bowl against Western Kentucky. By the middle of the third quarter, his team had fallen behind 49–14, but scored 4 unanswered touchdowns and were down by only 7 points near the end of the fourth quarter. With one second remaining on the contest, Central Michigan had the ball on their own 25 yard line. The would be final play started with a 45-yard Hail Mary pass from Rush to wide receiver Jesse Kroll. As Kroll was being tackled he lateraled the ball to teammate Deon Butler, who ran 20 yards before lateraling to Courtney Williams. With no space to run, Williams made a quick third lateral pass to leading receiver Titus Davis who ran the final 13 yards, scoring a touchdown that would have tied the game with a kicked extra point and sent the game into overtime, but instead Central Michigan attempted a two-point conversion for the win, which was unsuccessful,

He finished his college career with 49 straight starts, 12,894 passing yards, and 90 touchdowns.

Rush went undrafted in 2017.

He spent time with Dallas but eventually wound up with the New York Giants. On May 5, 2020, Rush was claimed off waivers by the New York Giants, reuniting with offensive coordinator Jason Garrett, who was his head coach with the Cowboys. On Sept. 5, he was waived and signed to the practice squad the next day. On Sept. 29, Rush was released from the Giants practice squad to make room for another former Cowboys quarterback (Clayton Thorson).

On Oct. 30, Rush was signed to the Dallas Cowboys’ practice squad, to provide depth after starter Dak Prescott suffered a season-ending ankle injury. He was elevated to the active roster on Nov. 7 for the team’s week 9 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and reverted to the practice squad after the game. He signed a reserve/future contract with the Cowboys on January 4, 2021.

And he remained the backup to Prescott until Sunday when he threw a game-winning touchdown pass to Amari Cooper with 51 seconds left.

The team that wears a star on its helmet has another star — for a night — to add to its lore as America’s Team.