The Eagles’ DeSean Jackson responded with a gay slur to a caller on a satellite radio show earlier this week and doesn’t look like he’s going to apologize.
Among a lightning round of comments and questions on the show, a caller asked whether Jackson had ever “got his dick knocked in the dirt.” No one had any idea what the caller was talking about, and Jackson said, “What kind of question is that?” and then called Troy from Tennessee a “gay ass faggot.”
Deadspin was the first to report on the comment. The host of the XM show -- Rude Jude -- told Deadspin that Jackson shouldn’t apologize because he "is a hood dude," and for "hood cats, the worst thing you can call someone is a bitch or a faggot. I don't think he's homophobic. He's joking."
Almost immediately following the Deadspin report, Jackson went to Twitter and made two vague comments in all caps that could be references to the incident.
“WANNA BRING ME DOWN BUT IM OK!!” he wrote. “THEY LOOKN 2 TAKE YA DOWN AT ALL TIMES NO MATTER HOW POSITIVE AND WHAT U DO!! ITS ALWAYS A WAY THEY TRY TO GET YA.... IM STANDIN TALL.”
In one of many critical reports across the Web, though, the New York Daily News suggests“DeSean Jackson may want to take this one back.” An MSNBC blogger notes that the comment comes “just when the controversy over homophobic slurs in sports seemed to have quieted down for the summer.”
Basketball stars Kobe Bryant and Joakim Noah were ordered by the NBA to pay fines after using gay slurs to attack a referee and a fan earlier this year.
Jackson might already be known to the gay community for an appearance on The View, where he and other Eagles players surprised a young fan who was the victim of brutal bullying. The shocked student wiped tears from his eyes as Jackson removed his jersey, signed it, and gave it to the student.
“This happens every day, and people are not brave enough to stand up and take this on,” Jackson told him while admiring the boy’s courage to talk about what happened.
