Texas A&M Football
Key quotes from Jason Jack interview
“I know I mentioned Yemi Babalola (last week). He’s a great guy, but you never know the mindset of somebody. You never know the impression that their past has on them. Me leaving school was a manifestation of all the disabilities and all the things that happened to me in my early life. From (being wrongfully put into a mental hospital at four years old) to my dad being a schizophrenic to my uncles – my mom came from a family of twelve, and only five are left. Two or three are from suicide. My dad’s side of the family – his brother killed himself physically by alcohol abuse. I come from that. Me trying to discover myself and who I was – for the first time, at A&M, I was by myself. You can track all this, but there was a time where I wanted to commit suicide. I actually went to the facility that they have on campus. That was my sophomore or junior year. I told my coach, Stan Eggen. I went because I just wasn’t myself. Knowing my history, it frightened me. I thought it would repeat itself. ‘Man, this is starting to catch up with me.’ It was really scary."
"No matter if you go in the first round, second round or third round, it doesn’t change who you are. You see so many unhappy people who have everything and are living somebody else’s dream. You saw the guy in Kansas City. He killed his son’s mother and killed himself in front of the facility. You never know what manifests. I had to leave to take care of myself, because it was to a point to where I wasn’t myself. (It wasn’t to chase the NFL dream), because football was always secondary to my life. I never thought about football in a sense of – ‘I’m going to make it to the league.’ I had one purpose, and that was to get to college. That came when my brother went to prison when he was 16 for a violent crime. He was the oldest. If you’re the older child (and your father isn’t around), you have to take care of the younger ones. It’s just so much stress. He was our father, so by the time he was fifteen, he’d been playing daddy his whole life. It’s stressful. I’m a father, so I know how stressful it is. By the time he got to that age, he didn’t have anybody to talk to. There wasn’t anybody to guide him in the direction that he should go. Being in the education system, I see that all the time.”
“I wrecked my car. I missed the Colorado game. That weekend, I was driving probably seventy miles per hour on the way back to College Station. I wrecked my car, because I was doing things I shouldn’t be doing. Honestly, I shouldn’t be sitting here right now. By the grace of God, it’s a miracle, because I wrecked off of 290. This is when the buildings and surroundings – it was nothing but flat road. I was completely knocked out. Somebody pulled me out of my car. I don’t know who. I don’t know how I ended up at Denny’s. I don’t remember how I got back to College Station. That’s the thing about it. The next day, I was at practice, and it was normal. I was playing a game. I was in the game for so long that I didn’t feel the soreness in my body. Every day was a new game. Going to school and practice kept me going. I think that’s a problem that a lot of kids have now. After you get done playing the game, you start to feel that soreness. All those things that were hidden start to come out. That’s pretty much why I want to do what I’m doing now. I have a passion for it, and I’m going to give everything that I have to it.”
“I think sometimes you have to be at your lowest point to see where the bottom is. Being at my lowest point after leaving college and after writing it down, I saw the effects it had on my life, my kids, and my wife. I don’t want people to think I’m a bad guy, but I just had so many other occurrences in my life. I had tough breaks. Getting back to that grind and the hustle mentality of having to do something – I had to change. Being in my kids lives, bonding with my daughter and son who I disappeared on – I was just absent, because who would want me as a father? I was scared to love somebody, because I didn’t know that the decisions I would make would be the best choice for them. My dad put me in a mental hospital. I’m his own son. I could be in the same situation. I didn’t want to do that, so I ran. I think as a person and in my faith and getting back to my wife supporting me helped me to change who I was. Having kids and just growing and being older and wiser – there’s a point where you have to make a decision about your life and where it’s going to go. There is no amount of money, no thing that I was searching for. I was searching for happiness. I was searching for peace. It wasn’t material things.”
“The Aggie community is going to be the biggest help (with spreading my message through my book). The reach is just so long. It’s my heart. It’s why I’m here right now. A&M saved me. I want to give back to A&M. If you’re an Aggie, you’re always an Aggie. You never lie, cheat or steal. Aggies are going to be the biggest network for me, because of that label.”
“(If I knew in college what I know now), I’d compare myself to Myles Garrett. His ability, his speed, his technique – he’s a different build than I am, but if I compared myself to anybody, it’d be him. I was the type of player – when they recruited me, my pitch was that I didn’t care where I went. I was going to play. I wanted to go to a place that had juniors and seniors that were better than me, because I like competition. For three years, I played hurt, but I never sat the bench. I always started. Michael Bennett’s in the NFL, and he’s a great player. Them being the younger guys, anything I did and I learned, I taught to them. ‘This is what you do. This is how I do this. This is how I do that.’ It was just competition to me. I don’t believe that there is anybody really better than me. If I compare myself, I’d say Myles Garrett. I was 260 or 270. I ran a 4.6. I played basketball and had a 39-inch vertical. I bench pressed 405 ten times. I squatted 600-something. I had all the measurables. Speed, quickness – I have it on tape. You saw flashes of it. In the Texas game against Vince Young I had 10 tackles, 3 sacks. It was there, but when you have so many other things going on in your life, football is kind of secondary. If I could go back and talk to that Jason Jack, he would be an incredible guy. He would be. I still am, because whatever you have in your life, material things don’t make you who you are.”
“(Aggie) football is the only football I can watch a full game of. They’re great. They’re on the border. I think they need to be a little bit tougher. I saw it earlier in the season when they were 5-0. I knew they were going to have a tough time against Alabama. The physicality of the game – John Chavis came in and did a great job. He has two studs at defensive end. (Daylon) Mack is going to be a baller. It’s really just playing together now. Larry Jackson is one of the best strength and conditioning coaches in America. Those measurables that I told you about – he’s the reason I was able to do those things. I don’t think they’ll have any problem with that. It’s just kind of finding the right mix. I know (Kyle) Allen is leaving. Best of luck to him. I’m ready to see Kyler Murray. We’re going to see. I think this offense – if you have a Johnny Manziel or a Kyler, you can’t do anything about that. I used to hate running quarterbacks. They just change the game so much.”
Aggie Flashback with Jason Jack (Part 2 in-studio)
Key quotes from Jason Jack interview
“I know I mentioned Yemi Babalola (last week). He’s a great guy, but you never know the mindset of somebody. You never know the impression that their past has on them. Me leaving school was a manifestation of all the disabilities and all the things that happened to me in my early life. From (being wrongfully put into a mental hospital at four years old) to my dad being a schizophrenic to my uncles – my mom came from a family of twelve, and only five are left. Two or three are from suicide. My dad’s side of the family – his brother killed himself physically by alcohol abuse. I come from that. Me trying to discover myself and who I was – for the first time, at A&M, I was by myself. You can track all this, but there was a time where I wanted to commit suicide. I actually went to the facility that they have on campus. That was my sophomore or junior year. I told my coach, Stan Eggen. I went because I just wasn’t myself. Knowing my history, it frightened me. I thought it would repeat itself. ‘Man, this is starting to catch up with me.’ It was really scary.""No matter if you go in the first round, second round or third round, it doesn’t change who you are. You see so many unhappy people who have everything and are living somebody else’s dream. You saw the guy in Kansas City. He killed his son’s mother and killed himself in front of the facility. You never know what manifests. I had to leave to take care of myself, because it was to a point to where I wasn’t myself. (It wasn’t to chase the NFL dream), because football was always secondary to my life. I never thought about football in a sense of – ‘I’m going to make it to the league.’ I had one purpose, and that was to get to college. That came when my brother went to prison when he was 16 for a violent crime. He was the oldest. If you’re the older child (and your father isn’t around), you have to take care of the younger ones. It’s just so much stress. He was our father, so by the time he was fifteen, he’d been playing daddy his whole life. It’s stressful. I’m a father, so I know how stressful it is. By the time he got to that age, he didn’t have anybody to talk to. There wasn’t anybody to guide him in the direction that he should go. Being in the education system, I see that all the time.”
“I wrecked my car. I missed the Colorado game. That weekend, I was driving probably seventy miles per hour on the way back to College Station. I wrecked my car, because I was doing things I shouldn’t be doing. Honestly, I shouldn’t be sitting here right now. By the grace of God, it’s a miracle, because I wrecked off of 290. This is when the buildings and surroundings – it was nothing but flat road. I was completely knocked out. Somebody pulled me out of my car. I don’t know who. I don’t know how I ended up at Denny’s. I don’t remember how I got back to College Station. That’s the thing about it. The next day, I was at practice, and it was normal. I was playing a game. I was in the game for so long that I didn’t feel the soreness in my body. Every day was a new game. Going to school and practice kept me going. I think that’s a problem that a lot of kids have now. After you get done playing the game, you start to feel that soreness. All those things that were hidden start to come out. That’s pretty much why I want to do what I’m doing now. I have a passion for it, and I’m going to give everything that I have to it.”
“I think sometimes you have to be at your lowest point to see where the bottom is. Being at my lowest point after leaving college and after writing it down, I saw the effects it had on my life, my kids, and my wife. I don’t want people to think I’m a bad guy, but I just had so many other occurrences in my life. I had tough breaks. Getting back to that grind and the hustle mentality of having to do something – I had to change. Being in my kids lives, bonding with my daughter and son who I disappeared on – I was just absent, because who would want me as a father? I was scared to love somebody, because I didn’t know that the decisions I would make would be the best choice for them. My dad put me in a mental hospital. I’m his own son. I could be in the same situation. I didn’t want to do that, so I ran. I think as a person and in my faith and getting back to my wife supporting me helped me to change who I was. Having kids and just growing and being older and wiser – there’s a point where you have to make a decision about your life and where it’s going to go. There is no amount of money, no thing that I was searching for. I was searching for happiness. I was searching for peace. It wasn’t material things.”
“The Aggie community is going to be the biggest help (with spreading my message through my book). The reach is just so long. It’s my heart. It’s why I’m here right now. A&M saved me. I want to give back to A&M. If you’re an Aggie, you’re always an Aggie. You never lie, cheat or steal. Aggies are going to be the biggest network for me, because of that label.”
“(If I knew in college what I know now), I’d compare myself to Myles Garrett. His ability, his speed, his technique – he’s a different build than I am, but if I compared myself to anybody, it’d be him. I was the type of player – when they recruited me, my pitch was that I didn’t care where I went. I was going to play. I wanted to go to a place that had juniors and seniors that were better than me, because I like competition. For three years, I played hurt, but I never sat the bench. I always started. Michael Bennett’s in the NFL, and he’s a great player. Them being the younger guys, anything I did and I learned, I taught to them. ‘This is what you do. This is how I do this. This is how I do that.’ It was just competition to me. I don’t believe that there is anybody really better than me. If I compare myself, I’d say Myles Garrett. I was 260 or 270. I ran a 4.6. I played basketball and had a 39-inch vertical. I bench pressed 405 ten times. I squatted 600-something. I had all the measurables. Speed, quickness – I have it on tape. You saw flashes of it. In the Texas game against Vince Young I had 10 tackles, 3 sacks. It was there, but when you have so many other things going on in your life, football is kind of secondary. If I could go back and talk to that Jason Jack, he would be an incredible guy. He would be. I still am, because whatever you have in your life, material things don’t make you who you are.”
“(Aggie) football is the only football I can watch a full game of. They’re great. They’re on the border. I think they need to be a little bit tougher. I saw it earlier in the season when they were 5-0. I knew they were going to have a tough time against Alabama. The physicality of the game – John Chavis came in and did a great job. He has two studs at defensive end. (Daylon) Mack is going to be a baller. It’s really just playing together now. Larry Jackson is one of the best strength and conditioning coaches in America. Those measurables that I told you about – he’s the reason I was able to do those things. I don’t think they’ll have any problem with that. It’s just kind of finding the right mix. I know (Kyle) Allen is leaving. Best of luck to him. I’m ready to see Kyler Murray. We’re going to see. I think this offense – if you have a Johnny Manziel or a Kyler, you can’t do anything about that. I used to hate running quarterbacks. They just change the game so much.”
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