EAGAN, Minn. — The scary early-morning phone call to Minnesota Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell came during a rare holiday period on the NFL calendar: a summer break weekend marred by the sudden death of a rookie cornerback. Kylie Jackson.
The fourth-round pick out of Oregon was scheduled to report to training camp this week with the rest of his draft class.
Instead, O’Connell spent most of his season-opening press conference Monday talking about plans to honor Jackson, the gregarious 24-year-old who never got to play in a game, and how the Vikings have mourned Jackson since he and two friends, Isaiah Hazell and A.J. Litton, died. Died in a car accident on July 6th in their home state of Maryland.
“His joy, approach to life and work ethic made us so excited to have him in this building, this culture. It is a tragedy that he will not be here,” general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said.
Funerals for Jackson and Hazell will be held on Friday. The Vikings announced they have donated more than $20,000 toward funeral expenses, and Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell will attend the service along with defensive coordinator Brian Flores, special teams coordinator Matt Daniels and defensive backs coach Daronte Jones. The team also plans to fly Jackson’s family to Minnesota in the coming weeks for a private memorial with Vikings players and coaches.
Jackson’s uniform (number 31) and locker room will not be used this season. Players will wear helmet stickers with his initials and coaches will wear pins with the same design.
Before the rest of the roster arrived on Tuesday, 38 players reported to team headquarters on Sunday — mostly rookies, quarterbacks and players rehabbing from injuries. O’Connell typically waits until the entire team is in attendance to deliver his opening remarks, but this year he made time specifically to speak with that first group, reiterating the availability of mental health resources and explaining the team’s plans for paying tribute to the players closest to Jackson.
“Kyrie hasn’t been with the team long, but in our culture, it doesn’t take long to build strong bonds and relationships,” O’Connell said. “Having conversations with some of our veteran leaders over the summer and hearing how they communicated their feelings, it was amazing how much of an impact he’s had in such a short amount of time.”
Perhaps the greatest impact Jackson will leave on the Vikings will be as a reminder of the fragility of life and, for his players, the eternal uncertainty of their careers.
“I think this was a wake-up call in a lot of ways that no matter what time it is, there’s no guarantee you’re going to live another day on this earth,” O’Connell said. “I don’t think there was a single player in that locker room who, in the grieving process, had any inkling of how unfair this was to Kyrie and his family and any question of, ‘What if?’ or ‘Could that have happened to me?'”
That point was made less than a week ago when the second-year wide receiver Jordan Addison was arrested Addison was arrested in California on suspicion of drunk driving. He was charged with speeding just before the first training camp and was scheduled to report to camp on Tuesday.
For now, the Vikings have handed over any role in discipline to the NFL under their collectively bargained player conduct policy, and such punishments from the league are rarely enforced until the legal process is complete.
“You may be disappointed in Jordan, but there’s so much more to him,” Adofo-Mensah said. “He holds himself to high standards, he was raised in a great family, he knows what actions he needs to take to be the best version of himself. In that respect, he’s kind of disappointed himself. We don’t really talk about that within these walls, using words like discipline or anything like that. Within these walls, we engineer for the outcome we want. Our outcome is for Jordan to be the best version of himself on and off the field, and he’s embraced exactly that.”
