No Counterfeit Bill

Add another story to Cedar Rapids' list of underdog athletes who took harder paths than most to get to the major leagues of their sports. Fredrick Jackson’s long and winding road to the National Football League came to a fairy-tale end Saturday, when his name was on the final 53-man roster of the Buffalo Bills.

Jackson, a 2003 Coe College graduate and two-time Iowa Conference MVP from Fort Worth, Texas, defied serious odds by advancing to the NFL as an undrafted free agent out of the NCAA’s Division III. He joins Carey Bender ’95, who showed up on Buffalo’s active roster for one game in 1996 and spent two years on the Bills’ practice squad, as the only Coe graduates to advance to the NFL as players.

It didn’t hurt to have Marv Levy (Coe class of 1950) in their corner – as Buffalo’s coach when Bender was added to the team and as general manager when Jackson signed a free agent contract in 2006. But both players earned their NFL paychecks. (In Jackson’s case, the NFL minimum for a first-year player is $285,000. Not bad for a sociology major four years out of college.)

In 2004, Jackson began a two-year stint with the Sioux City Bandits of United Indoor Football. He was the league’s MVP in 2005 with 1,770 rushing yards, 442 receiving yards, 1,467 return yards and 53 touchdowns.

After signing with the Bills, Jackson was allocated to NFL Europe and led the Rhein Fire in rushing with 731 yards. He spent the 2006 season on the Bills’ practice squad.

This summer, Jackson led the Bills in four preseason games with 130 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 30 carries. He also led the team with 10 receptions for 142 yards. His five kick returns for 114 yards also led the Bills.

After making the most of his opportunities in Buffalo, other NFL teams took notice and it was clear the Bills could no longer hide him on their practice squad. A few other NFL clubs – including the Green Bay Packers – let Jackson's agent know they'd be interested in picking him up if he didn't make Buffalo's active roster.

The Bills’ cuts were announced shortly after the NFL’s 5 p.m. Saturday roster deadline, and Jackson’s name was not on the list. Instead, he was one of five running backs retained by Buffalo.

"It's definitely fulfilling," Jackson told buffalobills.com lead journalist Chris Brown. "It was a long road traveled and not the most common road traveled but it was definitely worth it to put in the work. I met a lot of great people along the way and I'm glad about the opportunity I'll have now."

Jackson first spoke to his mom by phone after getting word that he made the team. That was followed by phone calls to a host of family and friends. In a conversation with Coe Head Coach Erik Raeburn, Jackson was reportedly more interested in Saturday’s two-touchdown performance by junior cornerback, receiver and returner Tom Breitbach than his own great fortune.

Breitbach’s family all-but adopted Jackson and his twin brother, Patrick, while they were at Coe and those ties remain strong.

Those close to Coe are tickled pink about Jackson making the rare leap to the NFL, where fewer than 10 former DIII players are among the 1,700 on NFL rosters. But we knew then that he was special.

``He was completely unselfish when he was with us,” Raeburn told Gazette sports columnist Mike Hlas. “One game, we kind of used him as a decoy on a screen pass to the other side of the field to Matt Wycoff. One guy was about to make a tackle, but he got blindsided. Here was Freddie, getting down the field to make the block.''

One play is seared into the memory banks of my son and I. We were viewing from the press box when Coe ran Freddie on a sweep to the right into a sea of defenders. Though we knew he was capable of running over each and every one of them, he turned on a dime and reversed field before scoring from about 40 yards out.

That was 2002, Jackson’s senior year. He led the Kohawks to a 10-2 record, a share of the conference championship and a second round appearance in the playoffs. He was so talented, Coe went the entire season without so much as attempting a field goal. Coach knew his odds were better with Freddie.

``Now that he's in the NFL,'' Raeburn said, ``I think there's a lot of former Iowa Conference players who feel a little bit better about themselves after trying to chase him down.''

I’m sure thrilled to have had the opportunity to watch him play for two years. I wonder if Zach still has that autographed program.