Gold Jacket Spotlight: Rickey Jackson 'a guy every coach wants'

At an early age, future Pro Football Hall of Famer RICKEY JACKSON recognized he needed to chart a path away from the predominant occupations in Pahokee, Florida: chopping cane, picking corn in the fields or working in the produce packing plant. In fourth grade, he decided to try football.

The decision began a career trajectory that eventually resulted in Rickey’s selection to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010 and into the glow of the Gold Jacket Spotlight this week.

After graduating from Pahokee High School, Rickey headed north to the University of Pittsburgh, playing in the media shadow of future Lombardi Trophy winner Hugh Green. That shadow drove Rickey to work hard, and his determination propelled him to being selected as Defensive Most Valuable Player in the 1981 East-West Shrine Game.

While Green was selected in the first round (seventh overall pick) by Tampa Bay and Rickey was a second-round (51st overall) choice of the New Orleans Saints, it was Rickey who would earn a bust in Canton, Ohio.

The Saints expressed their good fortune in being able to select Rickey noting, “We had him rated a lot higher and were really excited about getting him that late.”

Again, Rickey’s effort and commitment garnered immediate attention from the Saints.

“He started getting better from the first day of camp. That’s what I think stands out most about Rickey when he got here,” New Orleans linebacker coach John Paul Young said. “He was a player with a lot of natural ability, a good instinctual player who knew where to go on almost every play. But he never stopped working an improving.”

Young said Rickey excelled in all three areas vital for superior linebacker production.

“He’s excellent against the run, excellent against defending the pass and he’s an excellent pass runner. He’s a player who knows how to take advantage of his abilities,” Young said, “and he’s totally dedicated to excellence. He works hard at being the best.”

In a 1991 story by Barry Janoff, Saints head coach Jim Mora encapsulated Rickey’s value to his team.

“Rickey is a guy every coach wants because he’s a guy who can turn a game,” Mora said. “He’s a guy who makes big-time hits and big-time sacks. And he’s a guy who fires up his teammates.”

Rickey was asked about his most memorable play by Bob Marshall in a GameDay story in 1984. Recalling one of those “big-time hits,” Rickey described a blind-side hit he leveled upon Richard Todd, offering, “Womp! Can a’ apples. That’s when you hit them so hard you just open ’em up like a can opener and spread ’em on the ground.”

With 15 seasons of NFL service, durable is another word utilized when describing Rickey’s career.

After 13 of those seasons and what would become his last season in New Orleans, then-Saints linebacker coach Vic Fangio professed, “At the end of every season, we evaluate our people, and every year I’ve said that he’s had his best year. He’s on his way to making me say it again.”

Throughout his tenure in New Orleans, Rickey missed only two games. Those absences, in 1989, were due to his recovery from an auto accident. His vehicle hit the rear end of a flatbed pickup truck, resulting in a fractured cheekbone.

Later, teammate Stan Brock quipped, “… in all these years, the only thing that has been able to stop Rickey is a two-ton truck. And, really, it didn’t stop him, it only slowed him down.”

Rickey signed with the San Francisco 49ers in 1994. It resulted in him earning the one prize the Saints were unable to get during his time in New Orleans: a championship. The 49ers defeated the San Diego Chargers in Super Bowl XXIX.

“Football is the reason for everything I’ve been able to have,” Rickey said in expressing his gratitude for the game. “That’s why it’s so important to me. It’s everything for me.”