In a day and age where we can get caught up in the glitz and glam of celebrity, our generation as a whole tends to forget to honor and acknowledge the ones that came before them. It is no different with professional sports. Sports is a huge industry in today’s society with athletes seemingly larger than life considering social media, TV, and other large scale platforms make that an easily obtainable image. What is sad today, is that we very seldom honor those whose blood, sweat and tears made the organizations the powerhouses they are . Today, I begin to attempt to bring light to one of those men whose years of service to the NFL should never be forgotten. Also lost in today’s media and journalism world is a respect and sense of boundary when it comes to realizing that these men and women are more than just the uniform they wore or the league they were a part of. We have lost sight of the human end of the spectrum when it comes to what we report and how we report it. Today, that changes too. Follow me as I attempt to honor a legend and the path he took to go from being born in the South during the peak of the Civil Rights Movement to Starting Defensive Back for the New York Jets as a part of one of the most legendary defenses in NFL history.
Bobby Jackson was born in Albany, Georgia in the 1950’s. What part of Georgia, you ask? Bobby’s neighborhood growing up was called CME which stood for “Crime Murder Execution” or “Criminally Minded Element” whichever you prefer. A place where according to Bobby ” no matter what walk of life you came from and no matter what you looked like, if you were not from there, you did NOT go there.” He grew up in a time where the Civil Rights movement was at it’s peak and it affected him personally. “My mother had a scar on her forehead from participating in a rally on a street corner speaking up on what was happening to people of color and a police officer beat her with a billy club. A lot of people were injured and arrested that day, my mother included”. Among all of this, Bobby Jackson is proud to be where he is from and he knows it molded him into the man he is today. ” I was raised by my grandmother and we grew up in a time where central air and heat didn’t exist so I was outside every day chopping wood for our wood burning stove. A sense of hard work and character has been with me forever”.
“Playing with my friends for me was not sitting in front of a computer or TV. We were outside all day playing football”. It was those pickup games that caught the attention of a friend and starting linebacker for the football team. He asked him to join. Bobby joined the team and thrived. He went on to go to Florida State to play football, but entered the NFL draft before academically graduating. “I played 4 years there, leaving after my senior year. I started all 4 years, beginning as a true freshman at age 17, only missing one game. Set the school interception record which has since been broken. After my senior year I was drafted by Jets in 6th round. I had not graduated yet, but did graduate 42 years later”. He added,”I was at a time where I felt I had no choice but to enter the NFL and move my grandmother out of the hood”. Bobby did just that. He got his grandmother a house that she lived in until the day she passed a little over a decade ago.
Bobby arrived in New York and it was a bit of a culture shock in a sense. “My first and only visual imagery of New York was a show called “Kojak” and when I got to New York I had to see if those parts of the city were in fact real and they were. Man, I have never seen so many people in my life. It was both overwhelming and exciting at the same time”. It was 1978 and Bobby was a rookie DB for the New York Jets, a member of the historic “New York Sack Exchange” defense. He started all 16 games as a rookie and led the NFL with 5 interceptions. He credits alot of it to his front four linemen. “Anyone who knows football knows that when you have 4 guys rushing the passer, it makes him get rid of the ball quicker. If we do our job and have tight coverage on the receiver then we are either going to bat it down or take the ball”. Well Bobby certainly made the most of his opportunities. He amassed 21 interceptions in his career, leading the NFL twice. When asked about his “ballhawk” mentality, he accredited it to both coaching and his roots. “Coaching had alot to do with it, but also my upbringing and the way we played in the neighborhood, I loved to hit hard and be the first to the ball, so it took alot of hard work but it also came natural to me”.
Football in those days was built on hard hitting, beat down defenses and when asked about football today, Bobby let that be known. ” I can hardly watch today’s games to be honest. It is way too watered down. I was in the league with helmet slaps from Jack Lambert and dominating defenses like the Doomsday Defense in Dallas and the Purple People Eaters in Minnesota. Roughing the passer didnt exist. Fines werent levied for big hits. It was a part of the game. It was built on violence just like the gladiator games in the days of old”. Bobby continued ” Nowadays, high scoring games and commercials dominate the TV screen so it’s a hard product to watch when I played in a completely different era”. I agree fully with him here, especially since this is coming from a man who has levied and taken huge hits with minor cognitive implications.
Fast Forward to today. Bobby has accomplished alot since walking away from playing football. He had a book recently published written by a friend on his high school team called “Straight Outta CME: Bobby Jackson’s Journey To The NFL”. It is available on Amazon so if you would like to go more in depth on what you’re reading here today, then definitely go buy a copy. I know I will. Bobby also had what he called “the greatest year of his life” in 2019. Bobby returned to Florida State after 42 years and completed the remaining amount of college necessary in order to graduate and get his diploma he walked away from so long ago. He had to fight through several hardships to make this a reality. ” I am old school. I had to learn how to use a computer. There were cognitive issues I had to overcome in order to focus and get my work done. Thank god I had an amazing support system around me to get me through”. He didnt just slide by. “In the 3 years that it took to finish I only ever recieved 1 grade lower than a B. I was on the Deans List.” When I asked what made him to decide to finish school so much later in life, he humbly replied “I always tell my kids that no matter what the circumstances, you have to finish what you start. I did. I fought through all of those circumstances and I graduated and it was the greatest achievement in my whole life, even moreso than playing in the NFL”. Wow. What a human being.
I hope the dynamic changes in sports media and journalism. Look at the things some of these men and women went through to get where they got. We need to find a better way to honor and celebrate these accomplishments for the sake of our history. When I say it was an honor to speak with Mr. Jackson, I whole heartedly mean it. It makes one appreciate the life they have and feel pride for someone you barely know but talked to for an hour on the phone. He asked about my dreams and when I told him about these endeavors with my writing and sports journalism he told me something that I will end with here ” Anyone can achieve whatever the put their mind too. Anyone can be who I was and who I am with hard work and discipline, period”. Thank you Mr. Jackson, today was truly an honor and I hope this reaches who it needs to reach in order to change the way we approach our jobs as sports journalists.
To The Rack With Mac 