Eagles

Watch as Reporters Scurry to Defend DeSean, Eagles

By Kyle Scott

Published: Mar 28th, 2014 · 4:22 PM EDT

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This is amazing to me, watching old school reporters get bent out of shape and try to poke holes in NJ.com’s report. Take, for example, Les Bowen, who himself admitted that his sources (people close to DeSean) were wrong when they said DeSean and Chip Kelly had spoken and DeSean was given assurances that he was in good standing with the team. Today Les wrote a mostly perfunctory story about DeSean’s release and the NJ.com report while at the same time going on Twitter and crusading for DeSean against allegations that he has gang friends.

How does one do that?

Retweet denials and skepticism of DeSean’s alleged gang associates:

Retweet a criminal NFL player who doesn’t understand the difference between being guilty and getting fired because an organization doesn’t want to pay millions to someone who could be a liability:

Retweet unfounded skepticism about what the owner knows:

Go after organization because they don’t spoon feed you a canned response when it’s very possible that there’s a lot more to this story that is not known by the public:

Retweet people telling DeSean’s mom that she’s nice:

And if that wasn’t enough, front office pen sniffer Sal Paolantonio (via Matt Lombardo) does his best to make it look like the Eagles weren’t trying to trade DeSean all along because they knew about the concerns raised in the NJ.com report:

Such bullshit. Couldn’t in good conscious [sic] dump this on another team? Haha. No, they can’t dump it on another team because now other teams know about it. That sucks, but it is what it is. As Jimmy Kempski and others have been pointing out, the Eagles have wanted to get rid of DeSean for upwards of two months, which coincidentally (or not) dates back to the burglary at his house. But here comes Sal Pal to make it seem like the Eagles were just blindsided(!) by these accusations* and wouldn’t dare try to pass this problem off on another team. The report made the decision to release DeSean easy for them, but it also probably forced their hand to do so now. Do you really fucking think they made the decision to release him in less than half an hour today? Absolutely ridiculous.

All signs point to the contrary– that the Eagles had concerns about DeSean’s off-the-field behavior for some time. He may not be guilty of any crimes, but obviously they view him as a risk. They’ve been poking around about the burglary. If something were to happen, all the signs would’ve been there. Hell, they probably know more than we do at this point. But that doesn’t stop people like Les Bowen from trumpeting DeSean’s PR statements and niceties tweeted to his mom. And while Les was talking to “close associates” of DeSean, NJ.com’s Eliot Shorr-Parks was talking to the LAPD about gang murders. You tell me who the real reporter is here.

*No fucking joke. Sal Pal is on ESPN making it seem like this was all news to the Eagles.