EAGAN, Minn. – The dreaded early morning call for Minnesota Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell came during that rare time for vacation on the NFL calendar, a summer holiday weekend soured by the sudden death of rookie cornerback Khyree Jackson.
The fourth-round pick out of Oregon was supposed to report to training camp this week with the rest of his draft class.
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Instead, O'Connell spent much of his season-opening news conference on Monday discussing plans to honor the gregarious 24-year-old who never got to play in a game and how the Vikings have been grieving Jackson since he and two friends — Isaiah Hazel and A.J. Lytton — were killed in a car crash on July 6 in their home state of Maryland.
“Between his joy, the way he attacked life and also just that hard-working spirit,” general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said, “we were so excited to add him to this building, to this culture. It’s a tragedy that he’s not here.”
The funeral for Jackson and Hazel will be held on Friday. The Vikings said they have donated more than $20,000 toward the 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 will also fly Jackson's family to Minnesota in the coming weeks for a private commemoration with Vikings players and coaches.
Jackson's uniform — he was wearing No. 31 — and locker will go unused this season. Players will wear helmet decals with his initials on them, and coaches will wear pins with the same design.
There were 38 players who reported to team headquarters on Sunday — mostly rookies, quarterbacks and players rehabilitating injuries — before the balance of the squad arrives on Tuesday. O'Connell normally waits until everyone is present to deliver his season-opening address, but this year he made extra time to speak with the first group to reiterate the availability of mental health resources and explain to the players who were closest to Jackson how the team planned to pay tribute.
“Khyree was not a part of our team long, but the way our culture is ... it does not take long for guys to build strong bonds and relationships,” O'Connell said. “Just through my dialogue throughout the summer with some of our veteran leadership and how they were communicating their feelings and things, it was pretty remarkable to hear the kind of impact that he had in such a short amount of time.”
Perhaps the biggest impact Jackson will leave the Vikings is a reminder of the fragility of life and, for the players, the forever tenuous nature of their careers.
“I think it is a wakeup call in a lot of ways that we are not guaranteed another day on this earth at any point in time,” O'Connell said. “And there’s not one player in that locker room that probably didn’t think about that at some point in time in their grieving process, just how unfair to Khyree and his family that this was, and ‘What would that have been like?’ or ‘Could that have been me?’ type of questions."
That point became especially poignant less than a week later when second-year wide receiver Jordan Addison was arrested in California on suspicion of driving under the influence. Addison, who was cited for excessive speeding just before his first training camp, was expected to report to camp on Tuesday.
The Vikings have deferred for now any role in discipline to the NFL under the collectively bargained player conduct policy, and such punishments from the league are rarely enacted until the legal process has been completed.
“Any disappointment we might have in Jordan, Jordan has more in himself,” Adofo-Mensah said. “He holds himself to a high standard, was raised by a great family. He knows the types of behaviors he needs to do to be the best version of himself. He’s kind of let himself down in that regard. Using words like discipline and different things like that, we don’t really talk about it like that inside these walls. Inside these walls, it’s about designing for the outcome we want. The outcome we want is for Jordan to be the best version of himself on the field and off the field, and he’s bought into that same exact thing.”
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