Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson has come under fire for using calling a fan a gay slur during a recent satellite radio call-in show.
During an appearance on Sirius XM’s “All Out Show with Rude Jude and Lord Sear” on June 30, a caller asked Jackson, if he had ever “got his dick knocked in the dirt.”
“What kind of question is that?” Jackson replied, and then called the fan a “gay ass faggot.”
The show’s host — Rude Jude — later said that Jackson shouldn’t apologize because he “is a hood dude,” and for “hood cats, the worst thing you can call someone is a bitch or a faggot. I don’t think he’s homophobic. He’s joking.”
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But on Saturday, Jackson issued this statement, and said he no harm.
“In a recent radio interview a caller got really confrontational with me,” Jackson said through a spokesperson. “I got very heated with the caller, took it a bit too far and did not mean to offend anybody. I meant no disrespect and a better choice of words was needed.”
An MSNBC blogger notes that the comment comes “just when the controversy over homophobic slurs in sports seemed to have quieted down for the summer.”
Jackson’s comments came only days after former Giants’ hero David Tyree said that he believed legalizing gay marriage in New York would be the first step towards society devolving into anarchy.
Basketball stars Kobe Bryant and Joakim Noah were ordered by the NBA to pay fines after using gay slurs to attack a referee and a fan earlier this year.