It’s been a turbulent week for both the Philadelphia Eagles and their veteran wideout DeSean Jackson, who came under heavy fire after a controversial series of anti-semitic Instagram posts including a quote that is falsely linked to Adolf Hitler.
The Eagles decided to help educate DeSean Jackson on why his actions were so offensive, with other offers of education also coming from unexpected places, such as Patriots WR Julian Edelman.
Jackson then spoke to Rabbi Doniel Grodnitzky of Chabad Young Philly, before reportedly setting up a meeting with a Holocaust survivor and an anti-semitic organization, working to understand his mistake and help empower others with his new-found knowledge in a move that may have had the right intentions, but lacked the knowledge to be pointed the right way.
Today, the Eagles released the following statement after relentless cries that the same team who kept Riley Cooper around following a racial slur, take action.
The key points of the statement are that:
Jackson remains on the team and has been ‘penalized’ for conduct detrimental to the team. His understanding ‘to remain on the team, he must support words with actions’ implies the severity of these discussions and that the team at least explored the idea of cutting him before deciding that educating him was the more beneficial decision.
His immediate actions to take the next steps reassured the Eagles that he is committed to this cause and thus, he’ll remain on the team.
It’s been a messy week from start to finish, but it’s hard to criticize the Eagles for trying to pursue this path as opposed to immediately cutting him without the receiver understanding why. Hopefully this really is the beginning and not the end of Jackson’s education, and one that will prevent this kind of atrocity from being committed again.
Mandatory Photo Credit: Jerry Habraken, Delaware News Journal, Delaware News Journal via Imagn Content Services, LLC
