Black Athletes in the Spotlight: HBCU Sports & Local Highlights
- DeSean Jackson called the Grambling-Bethune brawl “something out of the streets,” comparing it to gang-like behavior on the field.
- He warned the incident casts negative optics on HBCUs, harming efforts for national recognition and Power Five opportunities.
- Jackson stressed the brawl overshadowed coaches’ and players’ hard work, discrediting progress across the HBCU landscape.
- He urged learning from the episode, hoping such conduct “can’t ever go down like that again in football.”
Delaware State head football coach DeSean Jackson didn’t mince words when asked about the recent on-field brawl between Grambling State and Bethune-Cookman, saying the fight “looked like something out of the streets.”
“That’s some stuff I see in the streets,” Jackson told former NFL running back and current Delaware State running backs coach Clinton Portis on the House of Action podcast. “Growing up, you got different gangs — that’s what it looked like to me, bro. It looked like those guys didn’t like anybody on that field.”
Jackson, who is in his first season leading the Hornets, expressed disappointment that the moment overshadowed the hard work of players and coaches across the HBCU landscape. He emphasized that the negative optics reach far beyond the two teams involved.
“We put too much work in, grinding day in and day out, to just discredit and throw it all away for that,” he said. “The head coaches, the assistants — everybody works too hard for something like that to represent us.”
Footage of the fight, which broke out just after halftime of Saturday’s game before spilling onto the sidelines, spread quickly on social media. As many as nine players were ejected, and a total of 27 players were suspended by the SWAC.
Jackson said the incident reflects broader challenges that HBCU programs continue to face in their efforts to achieve national recognition and respect.
“It just shows how ghetto we can look sometimes, man, and it don’t look good,” he said. “When we talk about Power Five opportunities, situations like that hurt us. When people look down on the HBCUs and see things like that, it stunts our progress and the steps we’re trying to take to the next level.”
Still, the former NFL receiver closed his remarks with a note of hope, saying he believes the moment can serve as a lesson.
“Hopefully everyone learns from it,” Jackson said. “No one’s perfect, but at the end of the day, whatever it took for that to happen, it can’t ever go down like that again in football.”
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