It has not been a good week for DeSean Jackson. Or Stephen Jackson, for that matter.
DeSean Jackson made a mistake in posting a controversial social media post with a fake Adolf Hitler quote; Stephen Jackson made an even bigger mistake doubling down on it.
Zach Gelb took both to task Thursday on CBS Sports Radio.
“[Do] DeSean Jackson and Stephen Jackson just not know about Adolf Hitler?” Gelb asked on The Zach Gelb Show. “Come on, everybody knows about Adolf Hitler. Stephen Jackson literally said, ‘I don’t know nothing about Hitler.’ To me, I don’t get how that is possible when Adolf Hitler is responsible for killing six million Jews and millions of other people. So I don’t get what Stephen Jackson is actually trying to defend here.”
Stephen Jackson said that DeSean Jackson “was trying to educate people” with his post and was “speaking the truth.”
There are many problems with that statement. One, the Hitler quote that DeSean Jackson posted was fake. Two, the quote was from, well, Hitler.
“Shouldn’t you educate yourself first?” Gelb asked. “Shouldn’t you know if you’re trying to educate people that you shouldn’t use Adolf Hitler? You have to know who Adolf Hitler is if you’re going to quote him, even though he didn’t say the quote. So I just don’t get that. I really don’t. That’s the thing that has been mind-boggling all day – that explanation for it. I keep on hearing it, and I keep on not being able to understand it.”
DeSean Jackson has since apologized for his blunder. Stephen Jackson has, too. Sort of.
“I don’t want to see DeSean Jackson lose his job,” Gelb said. “I don’t think he should lose his job. What DeSean Jackson posted, it was bad, but then what Stephen Jackson did, it was actually worse because he doubled down on it. Stephen Jackson just comes off here looking lost. He looks absolutely lost here. . . . Stephen Jackson should take the advice he was giving Drew Brees. He said that he’s tone deaf and maybe you should read the room. Right now, Stephen Jackson is coming off as tone deaf and maybe he should read the room – because by defending DeSean Jackson, you’re basically defending the message that he posted.
“Stephen Jackson has to be better,” Gelb continued. “DeSean Jackson has to be better. A lot of us in this world have to be better. But there is no place for racism, and there’s also no place to be anti-Semitic. For Stephen Jackson, I think in the last 24 hours he’s done a lot of damage – a lot of damage. It undermines and now really takes away from a lot of the good that he has done recently where his heart is in the right place. But now I think a lot of people look at Stephen Jackson differently. . . . It’s a really bad look, and what you’re saying, I don’t even think you even understand how hurtful some of the things are that you’re saying.”