DRUGS, MURDER, AND FAMILY: THE LIFE OF LOUISIANA FOOTBALL LEGEND JANZEN JACKSON
December 16, 2014
Mike Piellucci
In the heart of downtown Los Angeles, there is a jail that bills itself as the largest in the world.
The Twin Towers Correctional Facility sits on 1.5 million square feet of land and is named for a pair of identical structures that sit a mile and a half from the civic center, one a medical services building and the other the jail. The jail houses a wide range of offenders, but specializes in maximum security cases and inmates with mental health conditions. Mother Jones magazine named it one of the 10 worst in America. Although the Los Angeles Department of Corrections does not disclose the exact number of occupants, its inmate population is believed to number will into the thousands. And packed in amongst them, dressed in a standard-issue canary yellow top and drab blue pants, is perhaps the finest defensive back to come out of high school in the class of 2009.
His name is Janzen Jackson, and for more than a year he has been held in the Towers awaiting trial on charges that he murdered his mother's long-term boyfriend in September 2013. He has since pled not guilty. His bail is set at one million dollars.
But once, he was a five-star prospect recruited by every school imaginable, a coach's son with limitless potential.
"He was extremely talented," says Brent Hubbs, who covered Jackson at the University of Tennessee for VolQuest.com. "Just an athlete that you'd say 'if he can put on weight and get a little stronger,' you'd see dollar signs because he had 'NFL' written all over him."
Jackson was born on December 14, 1990 to Tesra Jackson and Lance Guidry in Lake Charles, Louisiana, a city of roughly 70,000 located two hours east of Houston. His parents split up when he was young, so Jackson spent much of his childhood living with his mother in Houston and Los Angeles during the school year. During the summer, he'd live in Louisiana with Guidry, who was climbing the ranks in his football coaching career. By the time Janzen was in middle school, Guidry was entrenched as McNeese State's defensive coordinator and Jackson moved back to Lake Charles to live with his father full time. Immediately, he dazzled on the field and garnered a reputation around town as a prodigy, on par with Justin Vincent, a running back who was the MVP of the 2004 BCS National Championship game for LSU and graduated from the same high school as Jackson—Lake Charles football powerhouse, Alfred M. Barbe High School.
By the time Jackson took the field for his senior season with Barbe—after spending the previous three years at another school—his legend had only grown. He rivaled future New York Giants receiver Rueben Randle as the best player in the state, and had already made an early verbal commitment to LSU. Lake Charles isn't exactly a backwater in recruiting circles, but it is no mecca, either, and so Division I caliber football prospects are treated as anomalies. But Jackson, whom Rivals.com would eventually rank as the second-best cornerback nationally behind only eventual Alabama star and Bengals first-round draft pick Dre Kirkpatrick, was a cut above.
Jimmy Shaver, Barbe's coach, didn't know what he was getting in Jackson beyond someone he knew "would be the best player on our team."
Shaver was right. Jackson was preposterously fluid for his size, a 6'0" corner who could cling to receivers like shrink wrap. He was willing to hit, too; years later, Shaver still smiles about the time Janzen stopped future Green Bay Packers running back Eddie Lacy dead in his tracks on a two-point conversion attempt to preserve what was then an undefeated season.
"Probably a team that for us would have been 7-3, he made it a 12-0, 12-1 team because of him being there," Shaver says. "He was that good of a player."
Over the course of that season, Shaver became equally convinced of Jackson's overall makeup.
"I know nothing but good things about Janzen," he says. "Never one second of trouble. When he lived with his dad, his dad kept a pretty tight thumb on him… I just know, with us, he was not only a model football player but a model student."
The problems began after he left for college—or, some in town would say, just before. After being committed to LSU for nearly a year, Jackson floored local and national observers alike by signing with Tennessee as part of Lane Kiffin's first, and only, recruiting class with the Volunteers. He did so a day after no-showing the school's scheduled National Signing Day ceremony, a choice he made so Tesra could fly in from California to be with him when he signed. Although the decision had been in the works for almost a month following a recruiting trip to Knoxville, much of the local populace took it as a slight against the hometown Tigers.
"Up to that point, he was very highly regarded," says Alex Hickey, who covers McNeese State for the American Press, the local newspaper. "That was the first shockwave in the Janzen story."
CONTINUED https://sports.vice.com/article/dru...e-of-louisiana-football-legend-janzen-jackson
December 16, 2014
Mike Piellucci
In the heart of downtown Los Angeles, there is a jail that bills itself as the largest in the world.
The Twin Towers Correctional Facility sits on 1.5 million square feet of land and is named for a pair of identical structures that sit a mile and a half from the civic center, one a medical services building and the other the jail. The jail houses a wide range of offenders, but specializes in maximum security cases and inmates with mental health conditions. Mother Jones magazine named it one of the 10 worst in America. Although the Los Angeles Department of Corrections does not disclose the exact number of occupants, its inmate population is believed to number will into the thousands. And packed in amongst them, dressed in a standard-issue canary yellow top and drab blue pants, is perhaps the finest defensive back to come out of high school in the class of 2009.
His name is Janzen Jackson, and for more than a year he has been held in the Towers awaiting trial on charges that he murdered his mother's long-term boyfriend in September 2013. He has since pled not guilty. His bail is set at one million dollars.
But once, he was a five-star prospect recruited by every school imaginable, a coach's son with limitless potential.
"He was extremely talented," says Brent Hubbs, who covered Jackson at the University of Tennessee for VolQuest.com. "Just an athlete that you'd say 'if he can put on weight and get a little stronger,' you'd see dollar signs because he had 'NFL' written all over him."
Jackson was born on December 14, 1990 to Tesra Jackson and Lance Guidry in Lake Charles, Louisiana, a city of roughly 70,000 located two hours east of Houston. His parents split up when he was young, so Jackson spent much of his childhood living with his mother in Houston and Los Angeles during the school year. During the summer, he'd live in Louisiana with Guidry, who was climbing the ranks in his football coaching career. By the time Janzen was in middle school, Guidry was entrenched as McNeese State's defensive coordinator and Jackson moved back to Lake Charles to live with his father full time. Immediately, he dazzled on the field and garnered a reputation around town as a prodigy, on par with Justin Vincent, a running back who was the MVP of the 2004 BCS National Championship game for LSU and graduated from the same high school as Jackson—Lake Charles football powerhouse, Alfred M. Barbe High School.
By the time Jackson took the field for his senior season with Barbe—after spending the previous three years at another school—his legend had only grown. He rivaled future New York Giants receiver Rueben Randle as the best player in the state, and had already made an early verbal commitment to LSU. Lake Charles isn't exactly a backwater in recruiting circles, but it is no mecca, either, and so Division I caliber football prospects are treated as anomalies. But Jackson, whom Rivals.com would eventually rank as the second-best cornerback nationally behind only eventual Alabama star and Bengals first-round draft pick Dre Kirkpatrick, was a cut above.
Jimmy Shaver, Barbe's coach, didn't know what he was getting in Jackson beyond someone he knew "would be the best player on our team."
Shaver was right. Jackson was preposterously fluid for his size, a 6'0" corner who could cling to receivers like shrink wrap. He was willing to hit, too; years later, Shaver still smiles about the time Janzen stopped future Green Bay Packers running back Eddie Lacy dead in his tracks on a two-point conversion attempt to preserve what was then an undefeated season.
"Probably a team that for us would have been 7-3, he made it a 12-0, 12-1 team because of him being there," Shaver says. "He was that good of a player."
Over the course of that season, Shaver became equally convinced of Jackson's overall makeup.
"I know nothing but good things about Janzen," he says. "Never one second of trouble. When he lived with his dad, his dad kept a pretty tight thumb on him… I just know, with us, he was not only a model football player but a model student."
The problems began after he left for college—or, some in town would say, just before. After being committed to LSU for nearly a year, Jackson floored local and national observers alike by signing with Tennessee as part of Lane Kiffin's first, and only, recruiting class with the Volunteers. He did so a day after no-showing the school's scheduled National Signing Day ceremony, a choice he made so Tesra could fly in from California to be with him when he signed. Although the decision had been in the works for almost a month following a recruiting trip to Knoxville, much of the local populace took it as a slight against the hometown Tigers.
"Up to that point, he was very highly regarded," says Alex Hickey, who covers McNeese State for the American Press, the local newspaper. "That was the first shockwave in the Janzen story."
CONTINUED https://sports.vice.com/article/dru...e-of-louisiana-football-legend-janzen-jackson
