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
f****t."
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 f****t. 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 Newssuggests "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 gay audiences 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.
