Two very eloquent and intelligent brothers in T.I. and Richard Sherman are speaking out on behalf of NFL superstar DeSean Jackson in light of the huge co-sign the Washington Washington Football Team just blessed him with.
Sherman, will likely show Jackson no mercy whenever his Seahawks square off against Jackson’s new team (who are paying him handsomely) but for as a fellow professional Black athlete who has faced his fair share of criticism off the field, he’s identifies with the situation rather symmetrically. Sherman and Jackson actually grew up in neighboring areas and even played Little League baseball together.
Jackson was cut from the Philadelphia Eagles roster almost immediately following a NJ.com report that alleged he belonged to a Los Angeles Crip gang, despite being their most valuable player.
The reigning Super Bowl champ has been freelancing for Peter King over at MMBQ (when he’s not engaging in silly Twitter debates) and he used his pen game to be loud as his post game interviews to voice his educated opinion on the situation.
Via MMQB:
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’t tell you whether his friends have done the things police have accused them of doing, because I wasn’t there. I can’t tell you what DeSean does with his time, because we play football on opposite ends of the country. 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.
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.
But DeSean Jackson is the menace, right? He’s just as bad as those guys he parties with because he threw up a Crip sign in a picture and he owns a gangsta rap record label. If only all record label owners were held to this standard, somebody might realize that Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg weren’t the bosses behind NWA. Jim Irsay lookalikes in suits were.
Meanwhile T.I. recently appeared on Arsenio to back Tiny up for their new season of The Family Hustle but also offered up his two cents on the matter, questioning the Eagles’ motives behind releasing Jackson when another team picked up without much of a second thought.
“That wasn’t smart Philadelphia, the rapper told Arsenio. “How do you send arguably your best player to one of your biggest rivals? I don’t understand that. But, if the argument was his association with people of his past and him being from the ghetto, I don’t think he had any control over where he lived. If he could have lived in Beverly Hills, I think he would have back then.”
Check out Tip’s full convo below and hit the next page to see Richard Sherman and DeSean Jackson’s childhood photo together.
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Photo: Arsenio
