The Goat Speaks: Peace, love and Rickey Jackson
The Goat
GSEZ Founder
Or, as Jerry Romig would say, “HhrrrricK-KAYYYY…JACKK-sonnnn.”
Quite the year, getting a Lombardi and my all-time favorite Saint in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Let us now consider a few thoughts that cross the mind at this wonderful time, upon Jackson’s induction last Saturday. Note there is a possibility that some of these thoughts aren’t of the type usually found in other broadcast and finger media outlets….but that’s why you clicked on to the site.
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Doesn’t it feel like we finally arrived as NFL fans? That we’re finally not out there with out noses pressed up against the window, wondering what it feels like, what all the fuss is about? That was our guy up there on the podium. They were talking about the Saints, without any pity parties, or dumb qualifiers, or references to bagheads. There was a true, original, 100% New Orleans Saint getting honored as such. Maybe there wasn’t a conspiracy after all.
Speaking of conspiracies, let no man ever again speak ill of SI.com NFL correspondent and Hall of Fame selector Peter King, at least not around me. Leave aside for a moment his purchase of Saints season tickets in 2006, as honorable a gesture as we’ve seen from a national sports media figure.
Word has it, and I hate to go all insider Message Board Guy [tm -- moosedenied] on you, but there was a time in the super-secret selection meeting for the 2010 HoF class (the US Supreme Court should have such sanctity) that there was a small mention in the room that instead of discussing Jackson, who was perhaps a decent candidate, there was more important work to be done. And King essentially got up and made a stand and said no, this guy’s important, he should be in the Hall of Fame, and we’re going to talk about him right now. And they did. Maybe Rickey gets in anyway, maybe not. But I’ll always be grateful to King.
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It was righteous to see Rickey carrying on that great sartorial tradition of Frank Sinatra, the guy on the cover of Devo’s first album, Chuck D., Jake and Elwood Blues – a fedora too small for your head. Nothing, not even a bow tie, says “look at me” like the small fedora.
If you looked at the entirety of the Hall of Fame coverage leading up to and through the weekend, both broadcast and finger media, it was clear that you were seeing a lot of Emmit Smith and Jerry Rice, and not much of Rickey Jackson. But we have to remember that Smith and Rice were all-time stat leaders that won multiple Super Bowls for popular franchises, and not to mention the other four guys made for one hell of a class. There just wasn’t enough air time to go around. So it goes.
However, one moment of coverage was sublime. On the NFL Network, talking about Jackson, Jason LaCanfora threw up the graphic comparing the sacks/fumbles forced/fumbles recovered of Jackson (128/40/28) against those of Lawrence Taylor (132.5/33/10) and as much as said, we’re not saying Jackson was better than the greatest linebacker of all time….but when you look at the key numbers, we’re not sure just how much better Taylor was than Jackson, and these guys sure look pretty close.
I swear to God, I never thought I’d hear something like that on national television. I am a Goat at peace.
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And while I also love me some Pahokee High, based on City Champ’s left-arm-on-the-podium lean for most of his acceptance speech, who the hell was teaching the public speaking course? Apparently, the curriculum consisted entirely of having the kids watch videotapes of Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts.
Still, based on that lean-in stance for much of his speech, I was half-expecting to see Rickey suddenly swat out like an enraged bear and knock a football out of the podium’s hands. Of course, it wouldn’t have mattered, the HoF guys would have huddled on the field and, after a long consultation, just awarded possession to Jerry Rice anyway.
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I can’t completely ignore Jackson’s honoring of Tom Benson, although the great O RLY? head-scratcher came when he said that Benson saved the Saints by bringing them back to New Orleans. Welllll, I guess that’s true, maybe we’ll find out when Arnie Fielkow gives his own accepta–, ummm, never mind. Who knows when Benson was convinced, or what was in his heart when he decided. And there certainly hasn’t been a misstep since they got back — it’s like a couple that almost got divorced and didn’t realize what it was losing until it was almost too late.
Ah, topic for another day.
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As usual, the best part about all of it was not just the national recognition we craved, but the recognition of each other. We always loved Jackson as the guy who raised us all up, the franchise, his teammates, the fans. When the intervening years held stories of kids by multiple moms and failed child support, we all had some mixed emotions, proto-letdown, denial….and it turned out it wasn’t the whole story at all. All those kids were there, loved and acknowledged. Jackson is a decent guy, the kind of guy you were glad to scream for. Just a little more icing on the cake. What a day.
Thanks, Rickey, for everything. Well done, and congratulations.
Cha-ching indeed.
WHO DAT.