Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman is a frequent on The MMQB, and he wrote another fantastic piece recently when discussing the latest DeSean Jackson saga regarding his "gang affiliations."
Sherman hit the nail on the head when he compared this situation to Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay's recent arrest.
"Commit certain crimes in this league and be a certain color, and you get help, not scorn. Look at the way many in the media wrote about Jim Irsay after his DUI arrest. Nobody suggested the Colts owner had 'ties' to drug trafficking, even though he was caught driving with controlled substances (prescription pills) and $29,000 in cash to do who-knows-what with. Instead, poor millionaire Mr. Irsay needs help, some wrote," Sherman writes.
Sherman is dead-on with this comparison. Imagine if DeSean was in that exact same situation.
It would have been a totally different scenario by the media and everyone would have written the former Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver off as a criminal. In fact, some would even say he doesn't even belong in the NFL after that.
It's sad how it works like that, and it's very unfair.
Tom Levy of Deadspin said it best: "Sherman's central point here is unassailable: The problem with DeSean Jackson isn't that he's a gangbanger. It's that he grew up poor and black."
I mean, who's to blame Jackson to be friends with a "gang" member? Those are the people he more than likely grew up with, and people say it tarnishes his image.
Yet, what if you were in this scenario with a childhood friend? What if your friend grows up to become a drug dealer and you're still friends with him, so your boss fires you from your job because of that?
Come on, son.
