On March 28, 2014, NJ.com published a story about DeSean Jackson and his ties to questionable entities. Within an hour of the article's release, former Philadelphia Eagles
coach Chip Kelly let the three-time Pro Bowl wide receiver go. 12 years later, Jackson opened up on his side of the story.
"Man, it was a time in my career, and I just felt like it was a lot of things that was made up," Jackson said on Football Unfiltered with Rob Maaddi
. "There's a lot of allegations. I've never been a felon, never got arrested, never got in any trouble. So, to knock me for the areas I came from and the people I hung out with… It was just betrayal. I just wish it was just the truth, and I think the truth was they just wanted to move on. And that's okay.
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"Sometimes things happen like that. You have coaches that may not get along, or you have coaches that may not like certain things that a player may do. But for me, it was just more like a story that's been made up about something and just coming clean and just saying, 'You know what, we just want to move in a different direction.'"
Jackson joined the Eagles in 2008 and through the first six years at the franchise, he recorded 356 receptions for 6,117 receiving yards and scored 32 touchdowns. His final season at Philadelphia was his best with 1,332 receiving yards for nine touchdowns. However, things didn't work out between him and Kelly.
DeSean Jackson's raw account of his shocking Eagles departure reveals the untold story behind one of the NFL's most controversial coaching decisions. Subscribe for the insider perspectives that reshape how you understand the game's biggest moments.
Weighing in on Jackson's release back in 2014, Kelly claimed that the Eagles would be alright despite losing a star receiver. The former coach wasn't worried about losing him. Instead, he wanted to do something different with the receiving corps.
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"We just wanted to go in a different direction," Kelly said back in 2014. "It had nothing to do with any article. Purely football."
The Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie confirmed that stance and recalled how Kelly told him that he wanted to "attack the wide receiver position differently."
A week ago on the Dan Patrick Show, Jackson claimed that the conversation he had with Kelly back in 2014 was probably a fake one. And all he wanted was a bit more respect during his release. He certainly didn't like it when the media dragged his name through the mud for having gangster connections.
"I expressed this," Jackson said on the Dan Patrick Show. "I could have respected if he just said, 'you know what, Desean, we're going in a different direction. You don't fit in this. You're not the player we want, and so be it'. But I think to dig up certain things on how my upbringing was, and where I grew up at, and the people I was hanging around, to make it seem like I was a villain or a bad person in society, like that really made me feel a way."
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Nevertheless, Jackson moved to the Washington Redskins for three seasons. He later joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
before coming back to Philadelphia for two seasons in 2019. He was also part of the 2021 Los Angeles Rams
that won the Super Bowl. He later moved to Las Vegas and Baltimore before finally retiring after the 2022 season. Jackson officially retired as a member of the Philadelphia Eagles in 2023 after signing a one-day contract with the team.
Through the 15 years he gave to football, he recorded 641 receptions for 11,263 yards and scored 58 touchdowns. And even though he won a Super Bowl with the Rams, Jackson wanted to stay an Eagle throughout his career.
"I wish I could have stayed in Philly my whole career, man," he told host Rob Maaddi in the same podcast. "I played for Philadelphia, but at the end of the day, I had to go to other places."
Kelly may have framed DeSean Jackson's controversial 2014 release as a purely football-related decision, but the receiver's lingering frustration tells a completely different story.
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