In case you haven’t seen 100 times by now, the Eagles have released 3-time pro bowler Desean Jackson and a report suggest the motive behind the release was due to the team having concerns about Jackson’s gang affiliation.
According to sources inside the organization, the team was troubled by the fact that Jackson associates himself with members of the Crip gang who had a role in a double homicide from 2010.
Jackson has already been said to have no connection to the murder; in fact, police have consistently stated that Jackson is not a suspect in that investigation or any other. That hasn’t stopped some media outlets from running rampant breaking down every finger wave from Jackson to search for any semblance of gang affiliation.
But why? It’s simple. No team wants to have the next Aaron Hernandez. But if teams don’t start being more honest about their players and the fact that many of them come from gang-ridden neighborhoods, than players like Jackson will continue to be unfairly targeted despite no wrong-doings.
Look around at some of the better players in football, I guarantee every one of them has some sort of affiliation with someone in a gang. Does that make that person a thug? According to the typical media logic, yes. These players typically grow up with their friends in low income neighborhoods and for the guys who didn’t have the same skills as Jackson, they decided to take a different path in their lives.
Now I’m not here to debate the morality of being a gang member, the point I’m making is that there are Desean Jackson’s all over the NFL. Every single NFL team has players like Jackson, hell; the Eagles still have players like Jackson. It’s inevitable and the sooner teams around the league understand that many of these players came from nothing and had nothing but their friends, therefore there is a high chance they associate with at least one person affiliated with a gang. I find it hard to blame a guy simply because he is in a picture.
Jackson has a rap sheet about as long as the Pope’s yet the past few days have left his reputation stained and exposed a fundamental issue with how teams view players. I can understand teams being wary of a tight-end from Florida who idiotically took a picture of himself holding a gun. But to cut a player for simply knowing some guys who got in trouble, despite the player having no history of wrong doings, I just can’t find the logic. Compare Desean Jackson and his gang signs to Marvin Harrison and his quiet demeanor displayed when he played. The difference?
Harrison may have killed a guy.
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