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Book rips DeSean Jackson, labels him a 'jerk'

A recently-released book slams Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson and ranks him No. 86 among all-time jerks in sports.

Michael Freeman, CBSSports.com columnist and author of The All-Time Biggest Sports Jerks: And Other Goofballs, Cads, Miscreants, Reprobates, and Weirdos (Plus a Few Good Guys), rips Jackson for letting go of the ball before crossing the goal line in a game which we all remember last year against the Cowboys.

Writes Freeman:

Sadly, Jackson is likely a lost cause. He clearly doesn't listen to anyone and could give a damn about how he's viewed, which are two dangerous aspects of his personality. He's practically destined to jackass himself out of football (yeah, the Jerk Council used jackass that way). Then he'll look back and wonder what the hell happened.

According to amazon.com, the book was released in late May so maybe this is old news. But we don't remember hearing much about it until about a few hours ago. If you click on the link above and are a customer, you can read the chapter on Jackson online.

Freeman, who is African-American, said Jackson degrades himself by his actions:

There's no difference between Jackson's actions -- and the cadre of fools like [Terrell] Owens and his ilk -- and those African Americans who once debased and degraded themselves because that's what they believed whites wanted to see.

Rich Quinones of 1290 The Ticket in Delaware had Freeman on to discuss the book and his chapter on Jackson. He said he stood by what he wrote, but he didn't really slam Jackson on the air as he did in the book.

"Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe he's not a lost cause but I think he had done that in college [celebrated before crossing the goal line] so I think that's why I wrote that he's a lost cause," Freeman said. "He's young so he could easily prove me wrong but he doesn't seem interested in proving me wrong. He seems interested in doing that kind of stuff so that's what makes me a little worried about him."

My problem here is that Freeman used Jackson as an example about what he described as a larger issue. That doesn't really seem fair, considering there was no indication in the book or radio interview that Freeman had ever even talked to Jackson.

Back in June, I linked to a video with Jackson in which he discussed the death of his father, Bill, in the offseason. Click on the link, and tell me if that sounds like the same guy Freeman is describing. There are only 85 people in the history of sports that are bigger jerks than him? Because he celebrated early before crossing the end zone?

I'm not buying it.

Maybe I'm wrong, but Jackson seems to be generally liked by teammates, coaches, the media, and well, pretty much everyone here who watched him last season. Just earlier this week, Rich Hofmann of the Daily News wrote about Jackson's intelligence and how his hard work off the field and in the film room enabled him to have such a stellar rookie season.

Everyone's entitled to their opinion, and Freeman has a strong one, but I think he's off-base with his assessment of Jackson here.

Thanks to the folks at 1290 for the heads-up on the book and the interview.

Update: Just figured out that much of what Freeman wrote about Jackson in the book was originally published in an online column last season.