The Vikings gave Tarvaris Jackson a circus and he gave them a teammate (2024)

The Vikings were neck-deep in training camp at Minnesota State-Mankato in 2009 when the rumors started to circulate about Brett Favre joining the team. The anticipation grew to such a fever pitch that reports of Favre driving around the school’s campus in a black F-150 pickup or shopping at the Mavericks bookstore started making their way back to the dorms where the Vikings were staying.

The full-on circus could have been enough to make the blood boil for Tarvaris Jackson, the incumbent starter at quarterback who was already in a battle for his spot with newcomer Sage Rosenfels. But Jackson, still just 26 years old and only three years removed from the scrutiny-free life at Alabama State University, never let on that it bothered him.

“Brett Favre is one of the best to ever do it,” Jackson would say as the media swarmed around him, his eyes never wavering and his smile never breaking. “I can’t blame the coaches for being interested.”

Jackson had every right to be rattled, shaken or downright pissed off. And maybe he was. But the way that he sidestepped the landmines in his path during that difficult period helped him earn even more respect in a locker room that had already taken to him. Jackson, who died at the age of 36 in a car accident in Alabama on Sunday, deftly navigated a precarious situation that would have chewed up and spit out quarterbacks with a lot more experience and a lot more pedigree.

“He could’ve gone into a cocoon and gone into a shell and into a funk,” Brad Childress, the Vikings coach at the time, told The Athletic in a phone interview on Monday. “He actually really embraced it, I thought. He and Joe Webb, I think, were sponges. They picked up everything that was good that (Favre) had to say or do.”

Jackson was supposed to be the team’s quarterback of the future when the Vikings surprised some and took him in the second round in 2006. Childress, offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell and quarterbacks coach Kevin Rogers saw a raw prospect with a chiseled physique, a big arm and enough mobility to bring a different dimension. Childress famously likened him to a lump of clay that he felt could be molded into the next-generation quarterback.

He started twice down the stretch in his rookie season and 12 times in 2007 before beginning the 2008 season as the starter. Jackson suffered a knee injury that limited him to five games while backup Gus Frerotte started 11 games and helped lead the Vikings to the playoffs. Childress made the decision to start a healthy Jackson in the postseason against the Eagles, a game they lost 26-14 thanks in large part to Jackson throwing a pick-six to Asante Samuel.

“Hindsight is 20/20,” Childress said. “I know Gus wasn’t happy about it. He did do a stellar job in a backup role.”

With the jury still out on Jackson heading into the offseason, the Vikings sent a fourth-round draft pick to Houston in February to acquire Rosenfels to compete for the starting job. The two went through the entire offseason workout program in a competition that, despite Jackson’s mediocre production, was perhaps even stiffer than Rosenfels initially expected.

“It was evident to me when I got there how much the guys already on the team really respected him and liked him,” Rosenfels said. “So I knew I had my work cut out for me because it wasn’t like he was a teammate that people were hoping to lose that battle. I knew a lot of guys on the team that were hoping he’d win that battle because he was really liked.”

He may not have lit up the scoreboard in his first three years in the NFL, but Jackson’s relentless work ethic and easy-going demeanor endeared him to teammates, who rooted for him to have success.

RIP Tavaris Jackson. TJack was one of the best teammates and friends. Drafted together in 06’ and he will be missed. #skol #tavarisjackson

— Chad Greenway (@chadgreenway52) April 13, 2020

“It was all areas, whether it was looking at tape. He took care of himself in the weight room. You don’t find all quarterbacks that do that,” Childress said. “He was a very good teammate. He wasn’t above anybody. He was one of the guys and you appreciate that. Not a prima donna.”

When the Favre circus came to town, complete with an OJ-style live broadcast of his ride from the airport to Vikings headquarters, a sea of television cameras stationed outside Winter Park and the aura of a team being rescued from QB incompetence by an old enemy, Jackson could have been bitter and pouted. He could have lamented being rushed into the job in the first place or not being groomed well enough along the way. But he didn’t. He welcomed Favre in and watched how he went about the business of handling the most demanding position in professional sports.

“Tarvaris could have been anything but welcoming, but (instead he) was pure class and as good a teammate as any I’ve played with,” Favre said in a statement issued through the Vikings. “(I’m) proud to call him friend!! Such sad news.”

Childress remembers talking to Rosenfels and Jackson while the rumors were circulating, trying to level with both of them that the starting opportunity they thought they were competing for was disappearing right before their eyes.

“Both of those guys were big-eyed, he and Sage,” Childress said. “You had to call them in and tell them what was going on. As competitors, neither one were happy. Sage, we traded a fourth-round pick to get him and he thought he was the heir apparent. How do you ever know when a Hall of Fame quarterback is going to come on the market and still has some gas left in the tank?”

As Favre could often do, he was able to defuse any of the lingering tension in the quarterback room. He was riding in on his white horse and handed the starting job with almost no offseason work, and he knew how he would feel if the situation was reversed.

“At one point I think he said, ‘I feel bad for you guys. I know you were hoping to start,’” Rosenfels said. “He would give us confidence and tell us, ‘You guys are both starters in this league, you’ve just got to get the right opportunity.’

“He was very supportive of both of us while also acknowledging that we were in a tough situation. And I think Brett really appreciated that we took our both being put in a backup role and we weren’t negative and we didn’t complain, but we were supportive of him. I think that’s what made that room so healthy.”

Favre certainly helped himself by putting together one of the very best seasons of a Hall of Fame career. He led the Vikings to a 13-3 record and the No. 2 seed in the NFC, and Rosenfels and Jackson were up close and personal in watching how he brought a locker room together, how he read a defense and how he kept getting up when he was knocked down.

“Favre showed up and it was at that point that (Jackson and I) really became friends, because we both sort of had this backseat to watching Favre and Childress and all the things that occurred in that crazy season,” Rosenfels said.

They went through it all over again in 2010, when Favre was cajoled back for one more ill-fated season in purple. Childress kept Jackson as the backup and traded Rosenfels to New York, but the coach was fired midway through a disastrous season that included Randy Moss returning and going, Favre’s consecutive games streak coming to an end and the Metrodome roof collapsing.

“We got along even better that second offseason because we had that full offseason under our belt and we knew each other,” Rosenfels said. “We were both just trying to be starting quarterbacks. There was never any ill will. It was just two guys competing. I can say, that didn’t occur a lot in my career. Most of the times, the guys competing weren’t really good friends, but Tarvaris and I got along really well.”

Jackson parlayed what he learned in that crucible into a 10-year career. He went 7-7 as a starter for the Seahawks in 2011, left for Buffalo in 2012, then returned to Seattle for the final three seasons of his career — backing up Russell Wilson on the team that won Super Bowl XLVIII. All told, he was 17-17 as a starter in his career and threw for 7,263 yards, 39 touchdowns and 35 interceptions in 59 total games.

TJack…

Thanks for always helping me since Day 1 in the QB Room.

You were a great teammate to so many.

These Super Bowl Rings are forever but Your IMPACT will Forever Outshine. pic.twitter.com/25DNqx9Lr3

— Russell Wilson (@DangeRussWilson) April 14, 2020

“How many people can say they played in the National Football League for 10 years?” Childress said. “Not many.”

He leaves behind a wife and three children. He was the quarterbacks coach at Tennessee State, and Childress lamented that it appeared his coaching career was just starting to find some footing when the accident occurred. Jackson may not have turned into the franchise quarterback the Vikings were hoping for when he was drafted in 2006, but his work ethic, even-keeled demeanor and endearing spirit made him a locker room favorite from the moment he arrived.

“A guy from the South coming to Minnesota, that’s a whole new world whether it be the weather or the people,” Childress said. “He blended in so well. He was a good teammate in some adverse times. Even after Brett Favre comes in, he was still all in. That’s what you loved about him.”

Sage Rosenfels has contributed to The Athletic’s Vikings coverage.

(Top photo: Joe Robbins / Getty Images)