Andy Reid Defends DeSean Jackson, Criticizes NFL Network

We had some of our criticism of the way the media handled DeSean Jackson last night and it appears that Andy Reid was none too pleased either. Specifically, he says he's disappointed with the way NFL Network over-dramatized the scene on the sidelines with DeSean.

"Let me tell you something. I've a chance to go over that with [Director of Football Media Services] Derek [Boyko], and I'm disappointed with a lot of things. I'm disappointed with the NFL Network, very disappointed in the way they portrayed that. I'm going to tell you now that DeSean was all-in in that game, and he had a great attitude during that game. You can take a camera and make some things look any way you want to make it look, but that kid was all-in last night. I was proud of him for that."

He specifically refuted the reports sideline reporter Alex Flanagan made in which she said that Jackson was sitting by himself and not talking to teammates.

"Not at all. Absolutely nothing there. You can take...I'm not sure they know who is talking to who and so on, and what the conversation is about. Not knowing the language, I don't know how you're able to go into that. This is all petty stuff I know, but I'm telling you the kid was all-in. He had a great attitude and that's what I can tell you. There wasn't anything on the sideline or anything with him and Vince. There is nothing there. Nothing."

Like I said earlier, I thought the coverage of Jackson last night was a joke. It essentially ignored his actual play, which was worth griping out, and focused on this schoolyard gossip nonsense about whether he was talking to teammates enough. It's just garbage and trying to invent a story.

And like I said before, the craziest part is that a perfectly good story was already there! Now, I suppose you can take issue with his idea that DeSean was "all in." Maybe the stuff about him not talking to teammates was BS, but him not looking back at Vince on certain routes or the perception that he wasn't going all out effort wise... That's not camera tricks.