DeSean Jackson And His Father

Those of you who read the site a great deal, know how much I have been raving about DeSean Jackson and the progress he has made in a year.

I've seen a seriousness in him that I've seen before in other young budding stars, who had the light click on for them. It's like overnight they start to see clearly how important the preparation is for the NFL. 

They see it both physically and mentally.

Some of the seriousness I saw in Jackson was his reaction to his father's illness and subsequent passing.

You can see that it has affected DeSean and affected him in a major way. Jackson still laughs and jokes with the fellas but it's like he grew up five years in one year.

There's a seriousness about the preparation that shows you he gets it.

I see Jeremy Maclin and LeSean McCoy following him around and asking him questions.  I see DeSean yelling encouragement and corrections to Maclin across the field during the drills. 

It's good stuff.  I love seeing the relationships between teammates help to make them better.   

The thing that comes through clearly about Jackson is the way he's been working this off season, is that he wants to me a great player. 

I look at the Eagles weight room and see him in there working even though you know he's never going to get but so big with his body type. His father's teaching and influences of people like Jerry Rice have reached home.

His teammates starting with Donovan McNabb seem to have a confidence in him that is usually reserved for older, more experienced players.  Normally receivers take longer to blossom.

I didn't understand all of it until I read this article on NFL.com about DeSean and his dad.

The article describes the way DeSean's dad, Bill Jackson, pushed his son. His dad was his best friend.  He and his dad shared the dream of DeSean some day playing in the NFL.

DeSean talks about the advantage he had over his friends who didn't have their dads around to learn from.

In the article, they talk about the speed which DeSean inherited from his dad, who was a track guy (10.4 in the 100).

Unfortunately, Bill Jackson learned he had pancreatic cancer while DeSean was coming into his own during last year's playoffs.  He lay in a hospital bed and watched his and his son's dreams come true.

Now DeSean is intent on going all the way with what his dad instilled into him. 

At least they had the chance for the father and son to look each other in the eyes after all of the struggles along the way.  DeSean was able to tell his dad, "I made it.  I made it."

Fittingly, DeSean said, "This whole season, the rest of my career, I'm dedicating to my dad."

Happy Father's day to everybody this weekend.

If you're dad's still here, make sure he knows how much you appreciate him.

If you're raising kids be a good dad to them. 

What you do is extremely important in their lives.