Denver Broncos have suspended safety Kareem Jackson hasn't learned his lesson after forfeiting nearly $1 million of his salary for a series of illegal hits that have resulted in a pair of evictions, multiple fines and six weeks of lost wages.
That's because the NFL isn't a very good teacher, Jackson said.
The 14-year veteran claims he's being singled out by the league and that the NFL doesn't have adequate answers on how to change his hard-nosed playing style to adapt to today's game, in which the league disdains the clashes it once celebrated .
Jackson was granted an audience Commissioner Roger Goodell two weeks ago after his second suspension and things didn't go quite as he had hoped.
“I've been told I'm responsible for protecting the guys who are attacking,” Jackson said Monday night before hosting 50 youth from the Boys & Girls Club of Denver for its annual “JackaClaus Shopping Spree” at a Walmart in suburban Parker .
Kareem Jackson says the NFL hasn't properly informed defensive players about hitting protocols
“So I'm not really sure how I protect myself, make plays and protect them as well. But that's what I was told. And I'm not really sure what I'm doing when I play this game. So hopefully I'll find out.
“At the end of the day,” Jackson added, “I'm going to go out and play the game like I have since 2010,” Jackson said.
That should worry coach Sean Payton and Broncos fans.
He received his second suspension for the first tackle he made upon returning from his first suspension when he shot Vikings quarterback Joshua Dobbs in Week 11.
Thanks in large part to the heady, steady play of his replacement, P.J. Locke, the first safety in team history to record sacks in three consecutive games, the Broncos (7-6) have won four of the five games Jackson has missed.
Denver is trying to become just the fourth team since the merger to make the playoffs despite a 1-5 start.
The Broncos are just one game behind the sliding Kansas City Chiefs (8-5) in the AFC West, and Jackson is eligible to return to practice next week ahead of the Broncos' Christmas Eve game against New England.
They could certainly use their tone setter, provided he doesn't get kicked out again.
Jackson has been suspended, fined and even expelled, like with this hit on Luke Musgrave
“For me, I think, lowering my target range even further than I already have,” is a way to avoid even more problems, Jackson said. “As far as trying to protect the guy on the other side, that's impossible. I have no idea how to do that.'
Jackson has forfeited $837,000 in lost salary, in addition to the $89,670 he was assessed for unsafe hits this season, although Jackson said his unexplained hit on Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco in Week 6, which resulted in a $43,709 fine, was fully covered by the league erased — but not before Goodell used it as an example of Jackson's over-the-top tackles during their Nov. 30 meeting in New York.
Jackson said Goodell asked him why he would hit Pacheco the way he did when the running back went down and Jackson explained that he had already committed to going low and that as elite as NFL athletes are, it is not for any human impossible to change its trajectory. in that split second and avoid contact if the ball carrier dives at the last moment.
“It's impossible to play this game and do what you ask of us,” Jackson said. 'It does not make any sense.'
“I told him a lot of this is incidental contact,” Jackson argued. “Once I commit and go, I can't change.” Furthermore, Jackson said, “I am the last line of defense. My job is to take him down.”
Two days after the league used the hit on Pacheco in defense of Jackson's suspension, “the league turned around and gave me all my money back for it,” Jackson said.
“And then I thought, 'Why would you give me all my money back from the attack in Kansas City?' All these other hits are pretty much the same.”
Jackson said he sent a thank-you note to Goodell on Dec. 4 for meeting with him and included clips of other unmarked, unpenalized hits in the NFL this season.
Jackson believes he is being singled out because other players are not being highlighted
“And I said, 'I can't help but think you guys are singling me out because these guys aren't being flagged, there are no consequences and these are way worse hits than mine,'” Jackson said.
In an epic rant on the Stephen A. Smith show last month, Tom Brady said the level of play in the NFL has just deteriorated since his retirement on February 1. defenders must keep attacking players away.
“It's not up to a defensive player to protect an offensive player,” Brady ranted. 'A defensive player has to protect himself. I didn't throw the ball to certain areas because I was afraid a player would get knocked out. That's the reality.'
Exactly, Jackson said.
'It's football. It should be their responsibility and their job to protect themselves.”