Pro Football Hall of Fame: Tommy and Mommy

By Russell S. Baxter | Aug 8, 2015

Mom: “Russell. Who is this Tommy guy you’re always talking about?”

Me: “That’s Tom Jackson, Mom. He’s the guy who ruined my Christmas in 1977.”

It was part of a conversation that took place more than 20 years ago. But it is part of a story that speaks volumes about a man who I am proud to call a very close friend, a colleague and one of the best people to do his job when it comes to analyzing the game of football.

On Saturday night in Canton, Ohio, and in front of his wife Jennifer and daughters Taylor and Morgan, Tom Jackson will receive the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award. It’s an honor his colleague Chris Berman received back in 2010 and it shows the enormous impact the duo, which will enter their 29th season together on ESPN in 2015, has had on NFL coverage and sports television.

More from NFL

But both Berman and Jackson have had a personal impact on me. Interesting enough, I met them together in 1990 in front of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and explained I would be helping them out (thanks to Bob Rauscher) on NFL coverage this season. Both were the same as they are now: Kind, considerate and grateful.

However, Jackson left an impression on me a long time before I met him. The day was Christmas Eve of 1977 and the Pittsburgh Steelers and Denver Broncos were playing in the AFC Divisional Playoffs at Mile High Stadium. By game’s end, the Pro Bowl linebacker had intercepted Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw twice and the Broncos would go onto a 34-21 win.

After the game, it was early evening Christmas Eve mass (Midnight mass was tough for a family of 11) at St. Matthew’s Church in the small town of East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. I was a little disappointed in the outcome of the game and my mother was curious about what was bothering me. I had taken a liking to the Steelers ever since I saw the first game they played, which happened to be the fabled “Immaculate Reception” win over the Oakland Raiders in the 1972 AFC Divisional Playoffs.

Mom was concerned. She asked “what was the matter” and I said “you don’t understand.”

Time would move on and I would pursue a writing career that eventually would take me to New York (and College and Pro Football Newsweekly with Howie Schwab, Peter Hayes, Steven Kurtzman and Craig Ellenport). I would land a freelance gig at ESPN in 1989 while I was still working at CPFN.

In 1990, Rauscher asked if I could spend this upcoming season in Bristol on Sundays.

Could I?

It was great fun spending Sundays watching the games with the producers and talent for then-NFL Gameday and of NFL PrimeTime. My role would evolve over the years with the shows and the company. So would my relationships with both Berman and Jackson.

In Tommy’s case, it was somewhat different. We found that we had very similar backgrounds, theories and beliefs about life in general. Most of our conversations over the years were less about football and what was going on around us.

So in 1993, as I was playing catch-up with my mother (I now lived in Connecticut and she still in PA), I inevitably mentioned Tommy and she finally asked who this guy was. My response went back to Christmas of ’77 and she was amazed. In her words, “So you used to watch him play football and now you work with him? That’s amazing!”

Not long afterwards Tommy informed me that his father had taken ill. I told my mother (who had lost her father in 1989) and she casually asked if she thought Tommy wouldn’t mind talking to her. She felt she could help…and always did. My mother had a love about her that was indescribable and she made everyone she met feel good.

She would eventually make the trip to Bristol and ESPN with my father and brother Michael. She brought lots of lasagna and fed everyone on the show. I didn’t have to introduce her to Tommy. They found each other very quickly and embraced.

Time would move on. I continued my career at ESPN and the following year Mom brought sausage, meatballs, etc. The works (she had explained to me that she would never make lasagna again for my friends because they would eat it cold. That’s a no-no for my Mom, who at one time took a plate away from Chris Berman and found a microwave in the building).

In July of 1998, I was married and there was Tommy laughing and dancing (bad hip and all) with my sisters at the reception. One month later, my mother and her blessed soul succumbed to cancer. Her mass would take place at St. Matthew’s Church in East Stroudsburg, where she worked for several years.

And there once again was Tommy. Dressed in a white t-shirt and slacks, I would later find out that the airline had misplaced his luggage. But here he was celebrating my mother’s 60 years in a place where he had never been but one that was certainly quite familiar whether he knew it or not.

Yes, it was the same church where 21 years earlier he had “ruined by Christmas” with those two interceptions.

And somewhere above my mother had forgiven him for simply doing his job, which is something he has done for more than four decades as a player and analyst.

No person I have worked with has taught me more about the game and the human side of a player than Tom Jackson. It is his gregarious nature, infectious laugh and ability to communicate that makes him one of the best at his craft.

Tom’s penchant for detail and understanding what it takes to do a show is so very important. He always knows his role on the set but just as importantly he understands everyone else’s responsibilities as well. Numerous times I saw him pick up on a segment in which one of the other analyst lost their train of thought and his awareness of what everyone else was supposed to do enabled him to make it look like nothing had gone awry.

Most importantly, it is his human side that makes him so good at what he currently does. And it’s why I tell this story regarding him and my mother.

It is Tom Jackson the superior person that makes Tom Jackson the superior analyst that he is.

Next: Pro Football Hall of Fame 2015: A Fitting Start

More from NFL Spin Zone