Tonight I got called a liar by one of the only football players whose play I’ve respected on the field and whose opinion I respected off of it.
This afternoon I wrote an article about a Deion Sanders interview on the Tom Joyner Morning Show in which he he gave his opinion on DeSean Jackson’s release from the Eagles and the question marks surrounding Johnny Manziel.
In fact it was an article that the Tom Joyner Morning Show pitched to BSO.
In the interview Deion said:
I love Johnny Football. See, the reason people won’t accept Johnny Football is because Johnny Football has ghetto tendencies. I love Johnny Football.
You can hear the audio from the full interview below – and although I didn’t agree with Prime’s choice of words, in my article I stated that I clearly concurred with the point he was making.
Unfortunately, the respect I had for Mr. Sanders quickly diminished when he publicly discredited my journalistic integrity on Twitter by calling me a liar and saying that he didn’t say what the audio showed he clearly did.
Now, I understand that Deion is a Hall of Fame NFL football player, with plenty of money and notoriety, but that doesn’t make him immune from being wrong…and that is what he was when he called me a liar.
Being wrong is human. We’ve all been wrong about something, big or small, but what shows the level of integrity a man has lies often in his ability to humble himself enough to admit when he’s wrong and then offer an apology. This is where Deion Sanders dropped the ball tonight. After being presented will all the evidence needed, he refused to admit he was incorrect in calling me a liar. Deion then proceeded to tweet about God and Truth while not practicing the values he preaches on a daily basis.
At this point, I don’t expect Sanders to offer me an apology, in fact he told me to move on, but I’m sure if his professional rectitude was unjustly questioned he wouldn’t be so quick to let it go. Deion has shown his level of integrity regarding this. I just want to go on record saying that…men lie, women lie, the tape doesn’t. #Truth
.@DeionSanders Talks @DeSeanJackson10, Diva WR’s, #JohnnyFootball’s Ghetto Tendencies w/ @rolandsmartin on @TJMShow http://t.co/gbyJ2XgrYJ
— Roland Reports (@RolandReports) April 2, 2014
To hear exact quote go to the 6:29 minute mark in the audio clip below.