Eagles Wanted DeSean Jackson Out Because He’s A Locker Room Cancer

More and more it’s looking as if the real problem with DeSean Jackson and the Eagles had to do with his relationship with head coach Chip Kelly. CBS Philadelphia is reporting that Jackson’s attitude – which is something that has followed him since his college years at Cal Berkley – was getting in the way of Kelly’s team first mentality. The report claims that teammates were happy to see Jackson gone, he’s cursed out Chip Kelly and was a general malcontent.

“The fact is, [Jackson] was a ‘me-guy’ with an attitude problem and [Maclin] is the complete opposite, a team guy, a great character guy you go to war with,” said one source. “Funny how [Jackson] has this anti-bully thing and he thought he could push [Kelly] around; he found out otherwise. His being cut had nothing to do with the gang stuff. The team knew it. Everyone knew he had ‘ties.’ Those were his guys. That’s okay. What put him out was his selfishness. He can try and spin it all he wants how he’s ‘a team player.’ He’s not. I’ll put it this way, when it came out last Friday that [Jackson] was released, more than a few guys were happy it happened. They said ‘good riddance.’ He had no real connection with anyone.

“Yes, you can say he was the type that could catch three TDs in a loss—everyone would be down, but you had the impression he was happy, because he got his. It was all about him. A lot of guys thought that way about him. [Kelly] came in here with a plan to get this thing right, and the one major [obstacle] standing in his way was [Jackson]. If we were going to move forward as a team, he had to go. Think about it—did anyone come right out and back him publicly? Not one.”

The timing of this report comes on the same day that Jackson is sitting down with ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith to combat the rumor that he’s in a gang.

“You see little kids and how they cry and whine when they don’t get their way, that was D-Jax,” another source said. “I don’t think [Jackson] gave [Kelly] the respect he deserved. Kelly tried to reach [Jackson] plenty of times and [Jackson] tuned him out. Then you look at team functions, when everyone is out together at charity things or social stuff. He was the one missing. It was like he was in ‘D-Jax world’ and we just happened to be there.

“With Reid, [Jackson] tried pushing boundaries there, too, but he looked at Reid, I think, much differently than he looked at [Kelly]. Reid came in with an NFL pedigree. He was the guy that drafted [Jackson]. He was the one that called him on draft day and laid the law down right then: [Reid] wouldn’t tolerate any outside interference from anyone. Now you get this college guy [Kelly] and he’s not going to tell [Jackson] what to do. [Kelly] has a vision for this team—and he is a very old-school coach in a lot of ways. But there’s only so much [a coach] can take.”

The piece goes on to state that Kelly is a player’s coach and Jackson is now the Redskins headache. This scenario seems much more likely than the whole gang member one, simply because DeSean’s “ties” weren’t new. I made mention of this when the story first broke. It is curious that no teammate has spoken out for the Jaccpot CEO.