Eagles receiver DeSean Jackson still has a job. He still has a job because he has done all the right things since creating a firestorm with anti-Semitic social media posts this summer.
Owner Jeffrey Lurie, who is Jewish, called the posts “disgusting and appalling” and challenged Jackson to educate himself on the Holocaust.
Jackson on Wednesday met with the Philadelphia media for the first time since November. He addressed the social media posts from July and the steps he has taken since.
“I’ve been just using the time to educate myself and really just man up to the actions I took and just educate and learn from it,” Jackson said, via Reuben Frank of NBCSportsPhiladelphia.com. “Over the past few months I kind of had to reflect on just life. . . . You know, people make mistakes in life, and it was a mistake I made and I had to own up to it as a man, which I did, but I think I’m taking the proper steps to educate and learn from something I didn’t really know very much about.”
Jackson and Patriots receiver Julian Edelman have agreed to a museum exchange program. Edelman will take Jackson to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and Jackson will give Edelman a tour of the National Museum of African American History and Culture
Jackson also has committed to a visit the site of a concentration camp in Poland.
Jackson said he learned a lesson about social media, too.
“Honestly, just knowing what it is that you’re putting out there in the world,” Jackson said. “Social media could be used . . . for a number of things and what I chose to use it for on that day obviously brought some bad light to myself, so just really knowing the ins and outs of kind of what to post, what not to post, just how to be careful about what you post, that’s the No. 1 thing that I’ve learned from it.”
Jackson, 33, reiterated he has “learned from” and “owned up to” his social media posts, which included a quote incorrectly attributed to Hitler.
The three-time Pro Bowler has spent his money and time doing community work in the Crenshaw section of his hometown of Los Angeles. He will continue to use his voice in the fight for social justice.
“I’m going to be a firm believer that . . . we can come together regardless of color or regardless of race. It’s a fight we’re all fighting together,” Jackson said.