Rich Hofmann: Eagles' DeSean Jackson shows split personality

SO, WHICH IS the real DeSean Jackson?

Is he the player who, upon scoring a 64-yard touchdown yesterday against the Kansas City Chiefs, decided to make a spectacle of himself as he crossed the goal line, doing a diving somersault that ended up with him doing a split?

Or is he the player who, hours earlier, in the quiet of the Eagles' locker room, made the decision to take a pain-killing injection so that he would be able to play with a groin injury that limited his practice time during the week?

That he is both players is obvious enough. Still, on another big day for Jackson and the Eagles in a 34-14 win over the feeble Chiefs, there were these dual identities on display.

One screams New School: emotional, self-centered, look at me. The other whispers Old School: selfless, maybe reckless, taking the needle.

"I was able to get a shot before the game and make some of that pain go away," Jackson said. "So the pain wasn't a factor today. I was able to go out there and produce like I needed to. That was the only way I was going to be able to play. There was no point in me playing if I'm not capable of doing the things I'm capable of as a receiver."

The records tumbled like toddlers yesterday. Jackson had a career-high 149 receiving yards against the Chiefs. He has had a touchdown of longer than 60 yards in each of the last three games, the first NFL player to do that since Dante Hall did it for the Chiefs in 2003 and the first Eagles player to do it since Jack Ferrante in 1945.

The Kevin Kolb-to-Jackson connection is the first to turn in two 60-yard touchdowns in back-to-back games for the Eagles since Ron Jaworski and Mike Quick in 1985.

And there was one more first: his first needle.

"It's definitely kind of a hard decision," Jackson said. "I just asked some of the players that did it before and stuff. I just have confidence that they'll tell me the right things about it."

Depending upon the nature of the injury - which we don't know - the injection poses either little risk or some risk. The concern is obvious enough: In some injuries, all you are doing is masking the pain, which is the body's great defense mechanism. Mask the pain and you can do more damage. The equation is simple enough.