Did Pierre Garcon Take A Shot At His Own Team With His Emoji Tweet?

Wide receiver Pierre Garcon is set to become a free agent this week. He has spent the past five seasons in Washington, but will very likely ply his trade with a new team next season. The 30-year-old is coming off a 79-catch, 1,041-yard season — arguably his second-best in the NFL — but his price tag will likely be too high for a return to the land of NFL mediocrity.

Some of that has to do with the salary cap, as Washington is pressed against it after bungling the Kirk Cousins contract situation for a second straight offseason. The dysfunction in DC may include giving head coach Jay Gruden a contract extension, which is either a sign of stabilization or another example of a franchise that never knows what it’s doing.

Presented with the latter, Garcon had this to say in a quote tweet of a Pro Football Talk joke tweet. Keep in mind that he is, as of right now, still technically a member of the team.

Do you “say” emojis? Whatever the proper terminology, Garcon clearly finds something funny. So is this the sort of laughter the kids call shade? Or is he laughing at PFT’s misinformed idea that Washington is in disarray?

Here’s what Garcon said about playing in Washington after the season.

“I love playing in D.C.,” Garcon said in a December interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio. “Redskins fans are amazing, regardless, year in and year out. I’ve been here for tough times in D.C. and I’ve been here for good times in D.C., and D.C. is where I want to be. D.C. is an amazing town. They love football, and I love being around people that love football. I love being in a place where football is No. 1, regardless of what happens.

“So I want to be in D.C., D.C. is home for me. I have family there, I have a business there. Everything that I could ever want is in D.C. So I want to be in D.C. forever.”

Seems as though he enjoys it there, right? But that was in January. Things could change.

Gruden was asked about Garcon and fellow free agent wideout DeSean Jackson at the NFL Combine last week.

“I’d love to have both back, I’d love to have one back. If we’re unfortunate to lose them both, I’m not going to blink.”

That’s pretty diplomatic. No “shots fired,” as the kids also say. Kids say a lot of things.

So while everyone in Garcon’s mentions is mad at him for allegedly showing disrespect, the crying emojis may not even be at the joke, but at the joke being so far off. This may be him defending the franchise he expressed deep love for a couple months ago. There are companies that are looking to hire emoji translators in 2017 and even they would tell you these specific emojis in this context are ambiguous at best.

Ah, who are we kidding? It’s a dysfunctional, bad football team and Garcon is probably happy he’ll soon likely be somewhere else.