Lions’ defensive back draws inspiration from Pittsburgh role models
Buddy Jackson has travelled across Canada and the U.S. pursuing a football career, but it was in Pittsburgh where the initial culture shock gave way to an improbable source of inspiration.
Now a defensive back with the B.C. Lions after signing in Vancouver in February, Jackson moved from Florida — where he grew up — to the University of Pittsburgh, where he played from 2007 to 2011 before making numerous stops in both the NFL and CFL.
Playing his college ball in Pittsburgh and with aspirations of a pro career, Jackson said he had the opportunity to rub shoulders with the likes of Mike Tomlin and Troy Polamalu — a “very humble dude” — during his time as a student-athlete.
While some universities across the U.S. can be located “in the middle of nowhere,” Jackson said Pittsburgh’s campus isn’t that far from downtown and the football team plays its home games at Heinz Field, home of the Steelers.
“It was really cool to see that. To see professional athletes. A lot of our aspirations were to take it to the next level and to see guys like Troy Polamalu and Ike Taylor … it’s just inspiring to see how they go about their business,” Jackson said.
“I remember I was walking from the parking lot. I guess (the Steelers) were going to meetings and we were getting ready to go to practice. So, (Polamalu) just stopped and he was like, ‘Hey, what’s going on man?’ I didn’t know how to — you’re a college kid, you see a hall of famer stopping to say what’s up. I talked to him for a good five minutes, introduced myself to him. Told him I was a corner. He said, ‘You’ve got good size for a corner, man.’
“To hear that from Troy Polamalu, it just touched me. He’s like, ‘Just keep working. Continue to work and … the sky is the limit. Work when no one is watching.’ I remember, that was another thing he told me. I took his words to heart.”
Talk about a small world. Jackson went on to make plenty of stops in the NFL, including one
with the Steelers during training camp, where he got to join Polamalu in the meeting rooms and on the practice field.
The opportunity didn’t work out for him with Pittsburgh’s NFL team. But the advice from those chance encounters in the Steel City remained with him as he transitioned his career to Canada.
He’s appeared in 30 games in his CFL career, winning a Grey Cup with the Calgary Stampeders, a team he spent two seasons with before moving to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2016 and to the Lions this season — when he recorded his first CFL interception.
Off the field, the 28-year-old Jackson has found inspiration in music since his childhood days, and hopes to make a career out of it as a producer once his footballplaying days are over.
Jackson’s love for music started at age six. He plays the drums and the piano, though he saves that mostly for the off-season. By age seven, he said he was playing the keyboard at his church in Palm Beach, Fla. No formal lessons, he added, though it’s amazing what you can pick up from family with the same artistic connections.
“It’s kind of been like a God-given talent,” he said.
“My uncle and my aunt play as well. They play the piano. In church, I would watch them, I would go over as a little kid and pick up on little things … because I didn’t have any actual piano lessons or drum lessons. Like I said, it’s a God-given talent that I’m glad I have.”
This has led to a rather unique pre-game tradition for Jackson, particularly when the team travels on the road.
“Any time I get a chance on the trips, I go to the hotel and ask if they have a piano somewhere lying around and get (in some playing time),” Jackson said. “That’s kind of my pre-game routine.”