ARMY STRONG
NFL hopeful King inspired by fallen teammate and fellow Queens product
“Scared money don’t make no
money,” — Brandon Jackson When Andrew King gets hesitant, he thinks back to that quote. When he doubts his path, he remembers what his late teammate would often say before a game. When he questions his abilities, he recalls the opportunities Jackson sadly lost.
“It just means be loose,” the former Army linebacker and NFL draft hopeful said in a phone interview. “Be loose, be confident. You prepared for this moment.
“My name is out there with all of these NFL prospects. What am I going to do with my name when my number is called? I definitely take that with me, that approach. Whether it’s training camp, rookie camp, minicamp, I’m just going to go out and give it my all, because what do you have to lose really?”
A sophomore cornerback, Jackson lost his life last Sept. 11, killed in a car crash in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., but his memory is living on. The New York Police Department’s Finest and the Blue Flames of Philadelphia’s Police Department played a football game in his honor on April 15 at Army’s Michie Stadium, and King won’t forget him.
They both played high-school football in Queens — King at Flushing, Jackson at Holy Cross — but they didn’t know each other then. They met at Army, and developed a bond, two city kids at West Point. Jackson had a joy for life King admired, an infectious passion and intensity. He was always smiling, always talking, always encouraging others, never backing down.
“Everything you would ask for in a friend and brother, he was,” said the 5-foot-11, 228-pound King. “I definitely miss him every day.”
As recently as mid-January, the NFL wasn’t even on King’s radar. It wasn’t even a dream. The Queens native was planning to serve as a graduate assistant coach for the United States Military Academy Prep School football team, and then enlist for basic training.
The son of a 22-year NYPD veteran who was a first responder on 9/11 and nephew of a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force, he was looking forward to serving. But one day, Army coach Jeff Monken called King into his office, and informed him he had been invited to the EastWest Shrine Game, and suggested he could play at the next level.
“It was really an afterthought,” King said. “I was going to play college football and go on with my life.”
King was excited to be part of the showcase, but he still wasn’t taking the NFL seriously. Then practices began, and soon his mind changed. He signed with agent Josh Kranish while there, talked to scouts frequently, and decided to give it a shot.
If his NFL dreams come true, King will receive a reserve commission and fulfill his commitment to the Army in the offseason.
King attended local workouts for the Jets and Giants, and is on the radar of several other teams, including the Browns, Colts, Chiefs, Falcons and 49ers. He’ll get a shot somewhere, whether he’s drafted in the late rounds or signed as a free agent, Kranish believes.
“He’ll go into a camp and he’ll learn the playbook— he’ll learn the defensive calls and he’ll learn special teams [calls] as fast as anyone they’ve got,” Monken said of King, a three-year starter who recorded 97 tackles last season and 11 for a loss, helping Army beat Navy for the first time in 14 years and win eight games for the first time since 1996. “He understands defenses conceptually, not just his position, but what his defensive coaches are trying to accomplish with certain calls, making adjustments, and making checks.
“He’s a strong, stout player, very powerful, and when he tackles people they go down. I think those things are going to make it really difficult for a team once they get him to cut him.”
When Jackson died, King’s leadership qualities further emerged. He was hurting inside, but King did his best not to show it. Instead, he was there for his teammates, serving as a counselor of sorts, consoling them in difficult times, Monken remembered. He served as the team’s spokesman during the tragedy, writing a heartfelt firstperson account for The Player’s Tribune.
It was hardly a surprise to those close to him. In addition to being a captain on the football team, he was a battalion commander at Army, responsible for 400 cadets. King was often the last player off the team bus, or out of the locker room, or to leave the field. He was making sure a mess wasn’t left.
“He’s kind of like the mother hen,” his father, Rhonny King, joked.
King will have to prove himself all over again, but that’s nothing new. “It doesn’t matter where you [played in college], it’s how you perform, how you contribute to your team,” he said. “That’s what teams are looking for in somebody projected [where I am], a person who went through adversity and overcame it, constantly had to prove himself.
“Out of anybody in the country, I feel like I bring those qualities more than anyone.”
And when doubts creep up, he can always think back to his close friend Brandon Jackson, and that quote that sticks with him: “Scared money don’t make no money.”