If you were a fan of the NFL in the 80s and 90s, there’s a decent chance that the name Jeffcoat rings a bell.
Jim Jeffcoat was a first round pick of the Dallas Cowboys in 1983, spent 15 seasons with the Cowboys and Bills, totalling more than 100 sacks, 745 tackles, and a pair of Super Bowl rings.
His son Jackson now calls Winnipeg home, and was recently named a Shaw CFL Top Performer of the Week. While it may seem like no surprise to see Jackson following in his dad’s footsteps, that wasn’t always the plan.
“I mean I liked football, I watched it a lot growing up, but my love was basketball. I wanted to play in the NBA,” Jackson told 680 CJOB’s Bob Irving. “My older brother played basketball, and I wanted to follow in his footsteps. I wanted to play basketball just like him.”
That brother, Jaren, played basketball at D-III Norwich University in Vermont and is now the varsity basketball coach at a Vermont high school. Jackson’s twin sister, Jacqueline, also played basketball at Oklahoma and Texas State. Early on, Jackson wasn’t even allowed to play football.
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“My dad didn’t want me to play. He wanted to make sure I grew as tall as possible and he didn’t want me to have bad coaching at a young age. He wanted to make sure that, when I got the chance to play, I wouldn’t be taught anything that would hinder me from being the best I could be. I had to beg him to let me play in sixth grade, he wanted me to wait until high school.”
It was in high school that Jackson’s focus pivoted to football.
“Probably my junior year of high school is when I started to say, ‘hey, I think I can do better in football than I can in basketball.’ I got a lot of offers for colleges, and once I got to college I think I improved at football tremendously. I was raw.”
Jeffcoat wanted to leave his home state of Texas to go to university, but the University of Texas impressed him the most so he chose to become a Longhorn.
After a decent college career highlighted by a very strong senior campaign, Jeffcoat figured he would be a mid-round draft pick. Instead, he had to watch as all seven rounds passed without one NFL team calling his name.
“Big disappointment. I’m not going to lie, I felt depressed for a bit because I had worked so hard. My dad even told me, ‘the way you’ve worked this year, you should be a first-rounder.’ I ended up going undrafted, and no one would tell me why. I still, to this day, don’t know why. But I can’t worry about it anymore.”
Jeffcoat spent time with Seattle and Washington before he was cut by Cleveland last summer, leaving him frustrated and unemployed. Then in February, he got the call from north of the border.
“I talked to my agent and I was like, ‘that could be a good deal for me.’ I’m loving it here. It’s like they brought the fun back to football. It’s exciting to be here, I like how close the guys are. We’re a lot closer knit than I had been in the NFL with other teams. I feel like I have a group of brothers here.”
Jim Jeffcoat was part of the Cowboys team that ended a 15-year title drought in 1993, just a few years after the Blue Bombers last won a Grey Cup. If Jackson can be part of the unit that ends Winnipeg’s lengthy dry spell, his name will be remembered here for a very long time.
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