Richard Sherman Comments on DeSean Jackson's Release

[Goblinmonger]

I know it will be hard for some of you to not just break out the "he's a thug" attitude, but he makes some pretty solid arguments. Almost like he graduated in Communication from a really good school.

Was DeSean supposed to then say, "Thanks guys, but now that I'm a millionaire, please leave me alone"? Even if he wanted to, he wouldn't have. In desperate times for people who come from desperate communities, your friends become your family. I wouldn't expect DeSean to "distance himself" from anybody, as so many people suggest pro athletes ought to do despite having no understanding of what that means.

...

Commit certain crimes in this league and be a certain color, and you get help, not scorn. Look at the way many in the media wrote about Jim Irsay after his DUI arrest. Nobody suggested the Colts owner had "ties" to drug trafficking, even though he was caught driving with controlled substances (prescription pills) and $29,000 in cash to do who-knows-what with. Instead, poor millionaire Mr. Irsay needs help, some wrote.

...

This offseason they re-signed a player who was caught on video screaming, "I will fight every n—— here." He was representing the Philadelphia Eagles when he said it, because, of course, everything we do is reflective of the organization. But what did they do to Riley Cooper, who, if he's not a racist, at least has "ties" to racist activity? They fined him and sent him to counseling.

Full Article

[KamaAina]

1. Niners: Hire a private dick to check out the gang rumors, which Jackson vehemently denies.

And if he's clean, get to work!

[frylock]

2. he was already signed by that team in DC

[KamaAina]

3. You mean the...

...team in Landover, MD?

[frylock]

4. that's the one!

[DinahMoeHum]

5. Well, let that douchebag Snyder piss away his $$$$

and learn the hard way (again) that he can't buy himself a Super Bowl.

[KamaAina]

6. Whoops! Looks like it may actually be true.

Of course, the source is the LAPD, not a private dick, but who knows?

http://www.csnbayarea.com/raiders/source-lapd-confirms-jacksons-gang-ties-49ers-raiders

The San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders both reached out to the Los Angeles Police Department to confirm reports of DeSean Jackson's continued involvement with alleged members of Los Angeles street gangs; LAPD confirmed the reports, CSNBayArea.com has learned.

Last week, NJ.com reported that the Philadelphia Eagles were averse to retaining DeSean Jackson due to his off-the-field affiliations and the mercurial six-year veteran was released shortly after the article was published.

Jackson, 27, reportedly arrived in the Washington area on Monday and was scheduled to meet with Redskins team officials on Tuesday.

The two sides are close to an agreement, according to NJ.com, and the Redskins were not among the teams to reach out to the LAPD.

Leave it to Danny Boy to fsck this up!

[joeybee12]

7. The NFL likes to look the other way...

They'd lose a lot of players if they dug too deeply...and if universities didn't turn a blind eye, either, they would not have accepted people with 3rd grade reading levels into college...and for those of you wondering where I pulled that out...there was a study done and about 1/5 of college athletes read at that level...let's just cut the bs that there are student-athletes anymore.

[ProfessorGAC]

8. I Like Sherman, But. . .

. . .his statement seems to pretend that Riley Cooper suffered no consequences. He was a national pariah for a long time, until Michael Freakin' Vick said that's enough.

Sherman is tossing around the race card a little too loosely here. I don't deny there is a double standard, but if one is going to point it out, hyperbole that ignores the reality doesn't work.

And, since he made his statement after SEVERAL teams had already expressed serious interest in paying this guy multi-millions per year, the "bias" is not quite real world. Not exactly what most people of color are talking about.

His statement about Irsay is more on point. But, is that race or just class differentiation. Billionaires get away with more. Think not? See the bank collapse disaster. Who went to jail?
GAC

[PeteSelman]

9. Dead on.

This was a stupid move by the Eagles. It's very much in line with previous boneheaded moves such as releasing Cris Carter, Jeramiah Trotter, Terell Owens and Brian Dawkins. I really thought that with Reid and Banner gone they'd be past making idiotic personell moves out of cheapness.

Nope.

And now that he's a member of the racist nicknamed division rival, Jax will make them pay.

Kelly better be the frigging genius he's made out to be or there's going to be hell to pay.

[mythology]

10. If you lay down with dogs, you get fleas

But I also don't trust Sherman to be telling the truth. Partially because nobody knows the entirety of why Jackson was released, but partially because Sherman has proven to me that he's an egotistical sanctimonious jerk who refuses to see any fault in himself.

In addition to Jackson's possible gang ties, he's also been a prima donna who had to be restrained on the sideline during a game this year and was previously suspended for a game for missing a team meeting. The team had a new coach last year. It's possible that the organization decided that Jackson wasn't worth the trouble internally regardless of the story about gang ties. This is especially the case when you consider that the information about him being traded came out in early March but the story about gang ties didn't come out until late March.

And to claim that this is about racism is just unabashedly silly. But I don't expect anything more from a buffoon who claimed that people who criticized his petulant behavior were racist.

No NFL owner is going to be going to jail for prescription drugs. That's partially about class, but also because we as a society differentiate between abusing legal drugs and abusing illegal drugs. And really does Sherman want to bring up drugs given his personal history and his team's history with them?

The Cooper situation is different as well. Cooper doesn't have a history of being a problem outside of that obviously unfortunate incident. Jackson does. A one time problem is different from an ongoing problem.

[eridani]

11. Zirin: Richard Sherman Defends His Dirt

http://www.thenation.com/blog/179183/richard-sherman-defends-his-dirt?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=email_nation&utm_campaign=Email%20Nation%20-%2020140403&newsletter=email_nation_thursday

In normal NFL times, acts of hypocrisy such as this go unchecked. But DeSean Jackson grew up in South Central Los Angeles with Richard Sherman. In Sherman's words, "we come from the same dirt" and he felt compelled to write a response to all the rumors.

Sherman's piece in Sports Illustrated about DeSean Jackson should be read in its entirety but here is the core of his argument. He writes:

I’m not going to tell you that DeSean Jackson isn’t in a gang, because I can’t say unequivocally that he isn’t.... I can only tell you that I believe him to be a good person, and if you think, say or write otherwise without knowing the man, you’re in the wrong. And if it’s true the Eagles terminated his contract in part because they grew afraid of his alleged 'gang ties,' then they did something worse.... But go ahead and judge DeSean for the company he keeps. While you’re at it, judge me, too, because I still live in Los Angeles, and my family does, too. We didn’t run from where we grew up.

He then commented directly on Riley Cooper writing:

"This offseason [the Eagles] re-signed a player who was caught on video screaming, 'I will fight every n— here.' He was representing the Philadelphia Eagles when he said it, because, of course, everything we do is reflective of the organization. But what did they do to Riley Cooper, who, if he’s not a racist, at least has 'ties' to racist activity? They fined him and sent him to counseling. No suspension necessary for Cooper and no punishment from the NFL, despite its new interest in policing our use of the N-word on the field. Riley instead got a few days off from training camp and a nice contract in the offseason, too."

Altogether it is a remarkable statement about the double standards of race and class that stain the league. It stands as a rebuke to the relentless, unending stigmas young black men endure based upon not only how they look but where they are from.