03-29-2014, 01:37 PM
I have ZERO doubt that the Eagles were needlessly slimy here.
Look, if you want to take "high road" of full disclosure: shop the guy, relay what you know about the guy's past so you don't pawn him off on an unsuspecting club and make your team better. First, I have no reason to believe they did this - as opposed to just shopping him to get the big $$ off the payroll and add a player to the Eagles' roster.
But let's say they did and there were no takers. Why raise the off-field baggage as you release the guy? Just release him. In this NFL, dumping a player for salary cap reasons is par for the course, and DeSean was going to hit the team for $10+M bucks this coming year. Few would have batted an eye if the Eagles said "we cut the guy for money reasons" (or even if they said "we released him for cap reasons and because he wasn't a great locker room persence."). There is no need to do what they did.
But let's say the Eagles tried shopping Jackson without full disclosure (which is a distinct possibility), then their approach now is truly reprehensible. They are trying to say "we want to disclose all this baggage so other teams will have full knowledge before signing him" as a way of being "the good guy." That would be undermined if they tried to shop him without the full disclosure.
Bottom line: Eagles shat on Jackson as way of additional justification to their fan base for releasing a prolductive WR. That is all. And that is at least a little (and perhaps a lot) slimy.
Look, if you want to take "high road" of full disclosure: shop the guy, relay what you know about the guy's past so you don't pawn him off on an unsuspecting club and make your team better. First, I have no reason to believe they did this - as opposed to just shopping him to get the big $$ off the payroll and add a player to the Eagles' roster.
But let's say they did and there were no takers. Why raise the off-field baggage as you release the guy? Just release him. In this NFL, dumping a player for salary cap reasons is par for the course, and DeSean was going to hit the team for $10+M bucks this coming year. Few would have batted an eye if the Eagles said "we cut the guy for money reasons" (or even if they said "we released him for cap reasons and because he wasn't a great locker room persence."). There is no need to do what they did.
But let's say the Eagles tried shopping Jackson without full disclosure (which is a distinct possibility), then their approach now is truly reprehensible. They are trying to say "we want to disclose all this baggage so other teams will have full knowledge before signing him" as a way of being "the good guy." That would be undermined if they tried to shop him without the full disclosure.
Bottom line: Eagles shat on Jackson as way of additional justification to their fan base for releasing a prolductive WR. That is all. And that is at least a little (and perhaps a lot) slimy.