RISE TO PROMINENCE
Undrafted DB Jackson playing crucial role
FOXBORO – Sometime in the future, preferably on the sooner side, Rodelin Anthony would love to see Patriots undrafted rookie J.C. Jackson address the current wave of football players at Florida’s Immokalee High School.
“I just want him to come back and tell the kids, ‘Look at me. Look at what I’ve done,’” said Anthony, nowadays Immokalee’s head coach after serving as the program’s wide receivers coach when Jackson was Mr. Everything for the Indians.
Not much time has elapsed since Jackson, 23, walked those Immokalee hallways, hence his message of overcoming long odds to become a starting cornerback for an NFL team that sits one win away from a third straight Super Bowl appearance figures to resonate a bit deeper. It’s a story that features several strong doses of reality that stems from three college stops after graduating from Immokalee.
If Jackson’s life path, particularly his relationship with football, was more linear than entwined, maybe it wouldn’t strike the kind of chord with young men who harbor college and pro pigskin hopes. Before signing with the Patriots, his life fell sideways, on several occasions.
There was a shoulder injury that ended his freshman season at the University of Florida after just one game. Per published reports, there was offfield baggage that ranged from dangerous – Jackson on Christmas Eve 2014 was in a car that was on the wrong end of open fire – to possible career imploding. In 2015, Florida severed ties with Jackson after he was arrested for armed robbery; a jury later acquitted him on four felony counts.
Reached last week, Anthony noted that Jackson’s parents, father Chris and mother Lisa, raised their son right. They also raised J.C. to be tough. Bumps are going to occur, but how you respond holds the power to prove to be even more defining. For some time, Jackson has garnered headlines for all the right reasons. He’s clearly learned and moved on from a past that could have short-circuited his pro football ambitions.
In Anthony’s eyes, that’s what makes Jackson a success story. He shifted away from potential sabotage. Now, he’s a living, breathing NFL player.
“No doubt about it, he’s learned a lot,” said Anthony. “Look at him now. He hasn’t been in trouble for a long time. When I watch him on Sundays, I see someone who’s definitely matured.”
At Immokalee High, Jackson had little choice but to serve as a twoway threat, the byproduct of playing in a small town. Most of the Division I scholarship offers he received stemmed from talent evaluators smitten with his ability to shut down pass catchers, yet Anthony felt Jackson was just as good as a wide receiver, if not better.
“But that’s a biased statement coming from his receivers coach at the time,” said Anthony. “At that point, his explosiveness really stood out. His ability to jump and move left to right, it allowed him to get where he needed to. When you’re a freak of nature, the package is very impressive.
“J.C. was born to play football and he was born to be a physical specimen,” Anthony added.
After departing the University of Florida, Jackson left the Sunshine State to author the next chapter of his football odyssey. In 2015, he ventured to California and Riverside Community College. A fresh start that was located thousands of miles away from home seemed like the perfect remedy.
“It was a wakeup year for me. I had to start over,” Jackson told The Call prior to New England heading to Kansas City for Sunday’s AFC Championship Game. “I wanted to put myself back on the map. I had to take it one day at a time but it wasn’t easy.”
Added Anthony, “To be honest, I think he needed that. Any coach will tell you that you want an athlete to get the hell away from where he’s from. They take home with them wherever they go.”
At Riverside CC, Jackson concentrated on football and his studies. He recalled the D-I offers “not nearly as crazy like they were coming out of high school.” Still, people did notice the 25 tackles, two forced fumbles, and one fumble recovery in six games at his California pitstop, namely those at the University of Maryland. A path was cleared to return to the East Coast and with it a chance for Jackson to hone his ball-hawking skills before a bigger audience.
“I just had to adapt and adjust. That’s what I had to do,” said Jackson when asked about setting foot on three college campuses over a three-year period.
“You hope the kid becomes something great, not slip up again. You don’t want to be holding your breath the entire time,” said Anthony. “As coaches, we give them the path to walk down. It then becomes up to them if they’re going to make it. Go get it.”
With the Terrapins, Jackson started all but one of a possible 24 games over the 2016 and 2017 seasons. The Big Ten stage served him well, yet when 2018 NFL Draft took place, seven rounds came and went with no mention of Jackson’s name. Realizing a childhood pursuit was going to require someone taking a flyer on him. The Patriots provided an avenue, signing him as a rookie free agent roughly two weeks after the draft.
There were no guarantees. Could Jackson last through the mini-camps? Could he survive training camp and all the cutdown days along the way? Each time, he’s answered in the affirmative. Now, he’s a fully entrenched member of a New England secondary that the team can’t live without, a player who started the final five games of the regular season and finished tied for second in interceptions with three.
“It’s clear they understand his value,” said Anthony.
Players like Jackson, they use their undrafted status as fuel. In many ways, he’s cut from the same cloth as Malcolm Butler, the former New England cornerback who was bypassed by all 32 NFL teams on draft day and later emerged as a Super Bowl savior.
“When I came here, a lot of guys told me about Malcolm’s background, his history, and how he was successful,” said Jackson.
Now, Jackson is fashioning his own tale of success, one that Anthony hopes his former pupil can impart upon the current Immokalee High football players.
“I have an example I can use with my young guys who are looking to make a similar move,” said Anthony. “Anything is possible. You can do the same thing, too. It doesn’t matter how you start. It matters how you finish.”