The Obligatory DeSean Jackson Post

Nothing quite shows the difference that you get from rooting for / rooting against the laundry than the infamous DeSean Jackson touchdown turndown on MNF.

In the event that you've been in a cave, the talented Eagles rookie wideout cemented his place in the Leon Lett / Cementhead of the Millenium Pantheon with a nonchalance towards the end zone in this week's MNF game. Luckily for the Eagles, the move befuddled both the Cowboys and the referees, who blew the whistle on a live ball and/or failed to pick it up. On the next play, Brian Westbrook cleaned up the garbage with a 1-yard plunge, and on some level, it's No Blood, No Foul.

On another, of course, Jackson can spend the rest of his life having a Jerry Rice-level career, and it won't matter -- he'll still be That Hotdog Idiot.

Now, Philly Fan has been so starved for a wideout of quality -- remember, we went to multiple NFC championships with James Thrash and Todd Pinkston -- that they haven't pilloried the guy. He also ran backwards for a disturbingly long time on some punts against the Rams, and had a few moments of the dropsies despite the 100-yard-plus day in Dallas. We're not expecting an incredibly heady player here.

But what Jackson also has -- and what you can not, no matter how solid the citizen, teach -- is an ability to play the game in the slight future. You watch his body control around the sidelines or in the air, or his startling calmness in the moment before action, and you can tell he's just got It.

Now, whether he can stay healthy is an open question, or whether some CB or S is going to take him out of the game with some Al Harris-esque mugging... all fair questions. NFL history is littered with guys who started hot and then didn't keep it going for whatever reason. For all we know, Jackson's immaturity on the field might be matched off of it, and we'll be reading about him in police reports.

But until the stupidity actually hurts the on-field results (and to date, it hasn't, though you have to hope that Reid and Company are going to have more success reining him in for the rest of the year), Eagle Fan is going to try to just forget That Play ever happened.

The rest of the world, not so much.