DeSean Jackson Under Fire for Incendiary Social-Media Posts
Former Eagles president Joe Banner took aim at DeSean Jackson Monday night after the veteran receiver posted a number of anti-Semitic messages over the holiday weekend on Instagram.
Jackson posted multiple Instagram messages praising Louis Farrakhan and inaccurate Farrakhan-provided quotes attributed to Adolf Hitler.
The nuts and bolts of misquoting one of history’s true villains and a man responsible for the murder of millions of Jews during the Holocaust is not the kind of context that matters, however, especially because the words themselves remained anti-Semitic.
Banner, a Jewish man himself who ran the Eagles as the right-hand man for Jeffery Lurie from 1995 to 2012 and was in charge when Jackson was drafted in the second round back in 2008, argued that Jackson’s roster spot should be in jeopardy.
“If a white player said anything about (African Americans) as outrageous as what DeSean Jackson said about Jews tonight there would at least be a serious conversation about cutting him and a need for a team meeting to discuss,” Banner wrote on Twitter. “Which would be totally appropriate. Absolutely indefensible.”
Jackson’s sentiments were not exactly clear in the series of postings although he certainly seemed unaware of Farrakhan’s well-earned anti-Semitic reputation. The 33-year-old WR also curiously attempted to add context to the Hitler-attributed remarks instead of apologizing.
The passage attributed to Hitler 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 will extort America, their pan to 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.’”
Jackson imported the Hitler-attributed quote again on Monday with an updated message claiming that he “has no hatred in my heart” and claimed he was misunderstood, despite believing he was offering up an accurate rendition of comments from the former leader of the Nazi party and highlighting: “‘The will extort America, their pan to world domination won’t work if the Negroes know who they were.”
“Anyone who feels I have hate towards the Jewish community took my post the wrong way,” Jackson claimed.
Like Banner and Lurie, Eagles general manager Howie Roseman is also Jewish.
Jackson is one of a number of African-American players who spoke to the entire team back in May during an open forum on social injustices during the virtual offseason program.
The Eagles addressed the issue with a terse statement on Tuesday leaving their future with Jackson open-ended.
"We have spoken with DeSean Jackson about his social media posts. Regardless of his intentions, the messages he shared were offensive, harmful, and absolutely appalling," the organization said. "They have no place in our society and are not condoned or supported in any way by the organization. We are disappointed and we reiterated to DeSean the importance of not only apologizing, but also using his platform to take action to promote unity, equality, and respect."
The Eagles also left open the door for further discipline.
"We are continuing to evaluate the circumstances and will take appropriate action," the club said. "We take these matters very seriously and we are committed to continuing to have productive and meaningful conversations with DeSean, as well as our players and staff, in order to educate, learn, and grow."
Jackson, meanwhile, posted a video apology, along with an accompanying message on Instagram.
"I post a lot of things that are sent to me. I do not have hatred towards anyone," Jackson wrote. "I really didn’t realize what this passage was saying. Hitler has caused terrible pain to Jewish people like the pain African-Americans have suffered. We should be together fighting anti-Semitism and racism. This was a mistake to post this and I truly apologize for posting it and sorry for any hurt I have caused."
John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John every Monday and Friday on SIRIUSXM’s Tony Bruno Show with Harry Mayes, and every Tuesday and Thursday with Eytan Shander on SBNation Radio. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
