The Philadelphia Eagles’ wide receiver DeSean Jackson is causing problems in the locker room again. I guess in some odd way, he thought sharing anti-Semitic posts, Louis Farrakhan videos, and fake Hitler quotes wouldn’t be an issue, not least of the reasons being that Eagles owner, Jeffrey Lurie, and its executive vice president and general manager Howie Roseman, are Jewish. Alex Corey wrote about it yesterday:
Jackson highlighted three paragraphs from a book that attributed the Hitler quotes. He then posted a picture of the section to his Instagram story under the account @0ne0fone.
The passage reads:
“Hitler said, ‘because the white Jews knows [sic] that the Negros are the real Children of Israel and to keep Americas secret the Jews will black mail America.
‘The [sic] will extort America, their plan for world domination won’t work if the Negroes know who they were.
‘The white citizens of America will be terrified to know that all this time they’ve been mistreating and discriminating and lynching Children of Israel.’”
Yeah, it’s bad. He’s apologized, sort of, saying that he “probably” shouldn’t have posted the content because Hitler is a bad, bad man. He’s going to meet with local Jewish leaders in an effort to do damage control. And yet, will DeSean get released by the Eagles or get his pay cut at the very least? It remains to be seen. It could lead to him forfeiting the $4.8 million in guaranteed money this season. Still, this seems to be a much worse offense than Oklahoma State University football coach Mike Gundy wearing a “One America News” t-shirt. His wallet got lit up for that; his salary was slashed by $1 million. And what about Drew Brees? He was forced to apologize, caving to the lefty mob for merely saying the American flag shouldn’t be disrespected. This is where the DeSean anti-Semitic circus gets even wilder. No one really seems to be criticizing him; some have even defended him (via Fox News):
Drew Brees received visceral backlash last month for his stance on kneeling during the national anthem. Now, those who spoke out against the New Orleans Saints quarterback have remained largely silent when it comes to DeSean Jackson’s anti-Semitic posts on Instagram.
Jackson, who is currently a wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles, posted quotes falsely attributed to Adolf Hitler and praised noted anti-Semitic preacher Louis Farrakhan. He highlighted three paragraphs from a book that attributed the quotes to Hitler and shared it on his Instagram.
[…]
In the wake of it all, there were no Twitter threads from any current NFL player about whether Jackson was wrong or any teammate of Jackson’s saying that he was“part of the problem”like some did for Brees when he said he would never agree with someone who knelt during the national anthem.
[…]
New Orleans Saints defensive end Cam Jordan, at most, retweeted a message from Fox Sports’ Joy Taylor, which read: “What DeSean Jackson posted was wrong and ignorant. There is no defense for it. I’m glad he apologized and has taken action. Hopefully he will continue to take the time and energy to learn why what he posted was hurtful. Growth and empathy are important from all of us right now.”
Jackson’s Eagles teammates were quick to accept his apology with some retweeting his second statement he posted on Twitter later Tuesday. No upcoming opponents said they looked forward to playing Jackson and no one questioned whether Jackson was truly forthcoming in his apology.
And then, there’s former Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson spreading more fake anti-Semitism posts to defend Jackson. Our friends at Twitchy picked up on it:
.@Eagles WR DeSean Jackson posts a quote that says white Jews will “blackmail” and “extort” America. Then says, “I have no hatred in my heart toward no one.” At the very least, he is ignorant of what it means to be anti-Semitic. https://t.co/fahbdEyDOh
— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) July 7, 2020
...is it still “anti-Semitic” when a Jew says it? pic.twitter.com/KyC4Xqy5f5
— Larry Johnson (@2LarryJohnson7) July 7, 2020
Yes, it would be, but this is also a fake quote, you anti-Semite. https://t.co/5Gnps95W8r
— JERRY DUNLEAVY (@JerryDunleavy) July 7, 2020
Don’t waste your retweet’s on me, I’m not apologizing.
— Larry Johnson (@2LarryJohnson7) July 8, 2020
What a mess.
UPDATE: And now former NBA player Stephen Jackson said that DeSean spoke the truth or something (via ESPN):
Former NBA player Stephen Jackson defended DeSean Jackson on Tuesday night, saying the Philadelphia Eagles' wide receiver was "speaking the truth" with his social media posts, including an anti-Semitic message that he attributed to Adolf Hitler.
The Eagles called DeSean Jackson's posts "offensive, harmful and absolutely appalling," and the wide receiver later issued two separate statements of apology with "a promise to do better."
"So I just read a statement that the Philadelphia Eagles posted regarding DeSean Jackson's comments. He was trying to educate himself, educate people, and he's speaking the truth. Right? He's speaking the truth. You know he don't hate nobody, but he's speaking the truth of the facts that he knows and trying to educate others," Stephen Jackson said in a video posted on Instagram.