“Jackpot Records May Have Ruined DeSean Jackson’s NFL Career” is the hypothesis proposed by Willamette Week’s Matthew Singer, suggesting the wide receiver’s recently exit from Philadelphia might’ve been helped in part by an association with a Portland record store/independent label that did such a fine job reissuing Wipers albums.
An article published by NJ.com shortly before the Eagles announced they were cutting Jackson laid out the accusations connecting the 27-year-old native of Long Beach, Calif., to the Crips, including tenuous links to two supposedly gang-related murders and incidents of Jackson throwing up gang signs during games and on Instagram.
Among the more esoteric pieces of reported “evidence,” though, is the fact that Jackson founded a record label called Jaccpot Records. Why the janky spelling? Well, according to the article, Crips members refuse to place the letter “C” next to a “K,” “because in gangspeak, that stands for ‘Crip Killer.'”
When questioned by police, however, Jackson offered a different explanation as to why he named the label Jaccpot: Because “Jackpot Records” was already taken. As Grantland’s Bill Barnwell points out, “[t]here are several previously existing labels that go by the name of Jackpot Records, including the current Portland-based outfit that has re-released albums by the likes of Jandek.”