Rachel Nichols reacted to Stephen Jackson’s controversial remarks on DeSean Jackson and his anti-semitic comments on Instagram. The Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver cited an alleged quote from Adolf Hitler, but he later apologized.
Stephen Jackson didn’t believe DeSean had to apologize, and he started taking shots at the NFL, its owners and other players.
“So I just read a statement that the Philadelphia Eagles posted regarding DeSean Jackson’s comments. He was trying to educate himself, educate people, and he’s speaking the truth. Right? He’s speaking the truth. You know he don’t hate nobody, but he’s speaking the truth of the facts that he knows and trying to educate others,” Stephen Jackson said in a video on Instagram.
“But y’all don’t want us to educate ourselves. If it’s talking about the Black race, y’all ain’t saying nothing about it. They killing us, police killing us and treating us like s—, racism at an all-time high, but ain’t none of you NFL owners spoke up on that, ain’t none of you teams spoke up on that. But the same team had a receiver [Riley Cooper] who said the word n—– publicly! They gave him an extension! I play for the Big3. We have a Jewish owner. He understands where we stand and some of the things we say, but it’s not directed to him. It’s the way we’ve been treated.”
Nichols disagreed with these comments, taking to Twitter to send a message to his former ‘The Jump’ coworker.
“Stirring up hate is wrong. Making accusations about a group of people based on their race or religion is…wrong. And dangerous. It’s exhausting & infuriating that we all have to keep saying this, and yet every day there are public figures doing both of those things. S-t-o-p.”
Stirring up hate is wrong.
Making accusations about a group of people based on their race or religion is…wrong. And dangerous.
It's exhausting & infuriating that we all have to keep saying this, and yet every day there are public figures doing both of those things. S-t-o-p.
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) July 8, 2020
Following that, she posted another tweet, specifically naming Jackson and stating she was disappointed with him.
“Stephen Jackson hasn’t worked for ESPN for a while now so it would be impossible for him to ‘lose his gig.’ I was so proud of the way Stephen stood up for George Floyd. I was so disappointed to see his anti-Semitic comments. But he’s hardly the only one & I’m sad about all of it,” she wrote.
Stephen Jackson hasn’t worked for ESPN for a while now so it would be impossible for him to “lose his gig.”
I was so proud of the way Stephen stood up for George Floyd. I was so disappointed to see his anti-Semitic comments. But he’s hardly the only one & I’m sad about all of it https://t.co/e25WCzHS2E
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) July 8, 2020
Stephen currently hosts a very popular podcast with Matt Barnes but the backlash he’s receiving could force Showtime to cut ties with Jackson. They haven’t announced any sort of repercussion yet, but the network isn’t happy with Jackson’s words.
