DeSean: The Booing Doesn’t Help

DeSean Jackson’s message is pretty clear.

He understands why the fans get frustrated, and he understands that the players need to give them something to cheer about, especially after 10 straight home losses.

But he also believes the cheers benefit the team more than the boos, so a little encouragement early on, even if things aren’t going the Eagles’ way, would be a big help.

“We have a nasty trend going at home so whatever we need to do to fix that – all support, everybody in the stands just really encouraging instead of the opposite. That’s really more of what I meant by it. Just trying to get that energy to be on our side and not feel like it’s against us sometimes.”

Jackson was asked to clarify that he’s not blaming the fans.

“Never blaming,” he said. “That’s not what I meant when I said that. I just expressed it. Going into the games sometime, we’re three minutes into a game when you hear boos and things like that, so that’s kind of crazy to hear, especially when you’re at home. You never blame that for the reason why you’re losing because we’re professional athletes, we’ve got a job to go out there and win a game. So within our locker room, there’s no game where we feel we don’t have a shot at winning.

“Just to say that energy helps us kind of get going. When we feel we already have to beat an opponent, now we’re trying to fight our fans and things like that. Just that energy to help us go out there and have that support to win regardless of a dropped pass or interception, delay of game penalty, whatever it is. It’s like we need them on our side, not against us, so that’s kind of more of what I meant. Can’t blame nobody else but ourselves for losing the game. So as long as we’re just able to have that energy to help us go out there and win, that’s what we need.”

Jackson is in his sixth season. He gets why fans boo. And he also remembers what things were like when the Eagles were winning at the Linc, like in 2009 when they went 6-2.

But he said some of the younger players might not have the same understanding yet about the fan base and the city.

“I think for myself, I understand it, being here six years,” Jackson said. “And I can understand where the frustration comes from and why our fans are the way they are. But to the younger guys, I don’t think they really understand the ins and outs of why it is we’re getting booed and the frustration of where it’s coming from. So I’ll take the booing. Let them boo me. Just don’t boo the younger guys.

“It’s just something we can sense, we can feel it. Myself, like I say, being here in the past and just hearing what’s going on, what’s being said and things like that. That definitely doesn’t help. But it’s not to make it out to be anything to blame it on our fans because at the end of the day, they support us and they do a good job of that. So to clarify, we do hear it and we’re out there trying to do everything we can to win games. So we just need the support, regardless of if we’re doing good or we’re doing bad, just to support us. That’s basically what I meant.”

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Richard Rys offered his thoughts earlier today on whether Eagles fans boo too much.

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