Canzano: Khyree Jackson -- and another cruel summer
Former Oregon Ducks cornerback and two friends were killed.
Khyree Jackson died early Saturday in a car crash in Maryland.
He was 24.
Police say the former University of Oregon defensive back was in the passenger seat of a maroon Dodge Charger driven by Isaiah Hazel, one of his former high school classmates. Another classmate, AJ Lytton, was in the back seat.
They were state champions, once upon a time.
All of them played major college football.
All three were killed.
Investigators say their vehicle was struck by another car — a silver Infiniti — changing lanes at a high speed. Alcohol may have been a contributing factor, per the police report. The vehicle carrying the football players was hit, veered off the road, crashed into multiple tree stumps, and just like that, three lives were gone.
Jackson’s football journey wasn’t clean and easy. He bounced around after high school, attending three community colleges. He battled through obstacles and endured setbacks.
At one point he found himself working a part-time job at Chipotle. You and I saw Jackson shine on the football field in Eugene last season. But long before that, Jackson was a kid drowning in the high seas of self-doubt.
I loved the struggle in his story. He wasn’t a recruit who made the cushy five-star trip to the starting lineup. He floundered in school, got homesick, and then, found himself working at a grocery store deli, cutting meat. Jackson told anyone who would listen that he wondered if football was ever going to happen for him.
At Oregon, it did.
Jackson stood 6-foot-4 and weighed 194 pounds. He was unusually tall for a cornerback. He was lanky and athletic. He worked hard after community college and played two seasons at Alabama. Then, he transferred to Oregon and started for the Ducks last season. And when Jackson was available in the fourth round of the NFL Draft, the Minnesota Vikings called his name.
After I heard about Jackson’s death on Saturday, I thought about his teammates at Alabama and Oregon. But also, about Utah football. The Utes lost Ty Jordan on Christmas Day in 2020. Nine months later, teammate Aaron Lowe was shot dead at a house party. Utes fans didn’t just watch Kyle Whittingham wrap his arms around his football program.
They hugged it, too.
It’s what families do, after all.
How will Oregon’s football family pull closely together? How will the NFL’s Vikings honor the rookie with the big smile who never got to play a game? How does any of this madness make sense?
I have no doubt the teams will rally around the memory of Khyree Jackson.
I also hate that they have to.
I have three kids. Football coaches have 103 — or so. I heard about Jackson, then remembered the deaths of Oregon players such as Spencer Webb, Todd Doxey, Terrance Kelly, and some others.
I love summers, but why are they sometimes so cruel?
The wreckage scene on northbound Route 4 was devastating on Saturday morning. Prosecutors may bring charges against the driver of that speeding Infiniti. She and her two passengers survived the wreck.
“Drunk drivers are ***holes,” we’ll all say. But none of that will bring back Khyree Jackson or his two high school friends.
Did you know Jackson’s first call after being picked by the Vikings was to his mother, Ebbony? And that she shrieked with joy, then sobbed?
Her son’s story was one of perseverance and triumph. It wasn’t supposed to end in the early summer hours on a Maryland parkway. Jackson was going to play in the NFL, get married, have a family, make a life, and die an old man someday far away.
“I am absolutely crushed,” Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell said in a statement.
“I am at a loss for words,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning posted in a tweet.
Words are all I have today.
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One of the hardest things I have ever done was inform a mother he son had passed away from a drunk driver colliding into him.
Kid had just gotten home from a combat tour in Fallujah, Iraq. Mom was ecstatic when he came home. He was on leave for less than two weeks, he was driving home other car ran through a red light three times the speed limit.
His drivers license only had our unit address, so police contacted Camp Pendleton, and they contacted me by 2am, since I was his platoon sergeant. Police wanted his address, but I told them I'll take care of it. Got up into my blues and drove 2 hrs. I can still clearly remember his mother dropping to her knees and her screams.... I stayed with her, but felt so powerless. It was one of the hardest drives out and home I have ever needed to do.
I have zero tolerance for drunk driving...
It broke my heart when I first heard about Khyree’s death, along with his two high school buddies. Three families in unimaginable grief. My neighbors across the street just lost their 15 yr old daughter to a tragic dirt bike accident on a nearby country gravel road. All so senseless, all so tragic. And, of course, there will be more.
What we can do is reach out to those in proximity to us. No words need to be said. Just show up, cry, hug, listen. It’s part of being a member of the human race to grieve with those who grieve. Someday, your turn and my turn will inevitably come to grieve a loss and the hope is others will show up for us, not with cheap slogans or uninvited advice, instead just a simple, “I’m here, you’re not alone.”