PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) -- Former Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins is making his return to The Linc on Sunday -- on the visiting team -- when the Birds play the Saints, but not before some direct comments about his departure from Philadelphia.
"For me, I gave everything I had to that city, to the team," Jenkins said, "did everything that the coaches asked me to do, did everything to make the players around me better, tried to put my best football out there, and it just wasn’t valued by those who made the decisions."
Even though Jenkins made it clear at the end of last season that he wasn’t going to come back on the contract he was under, he said Wednesday that he didn’t care about the money.
"For me, it was just more of a principle about respect. I really didn’t care what the money was, but I wanted to see what that respect factor was. And it wasn’t valued at what I thought," he said.
In March, General Manager Howie Roseman told the Eagles web site: "Not feeling great about letting good players and good people go, but I think you see it around the league. And we’re in an era in a football team where we understand we can’t keep everyone."
Roseman said at the time that he lost sleep over letting Jenkins go.
"We’re gonna have to make hard decisions, and we’re gonna try to have to balance how the team looks right now and how the team looks two years from now and three years from now and, at the same time, trying desperately to be super competitive with that."
On Tuesday, defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz explained how special Jenkins is to him.
"He’s probably the smartest player that I ever coached," he said, adding that he would "probably be elected team captain" of a team comprising the best players he's coached.
Despite his opinion about Eagles decision-makers, Jenkins said he loves Philadelphia.
"I call it home in the offseasons. I’ve given myself everything I got into that community, invested a lot into that community, and its given the same love back to me," he said. "So that city holds a special place in my heart."