And it was absolutely a process.
Jackson has maintained that the "All or Nothing" portrayal might not have been fair, that editing an entire season's worth of footage into a handful of dramatic moments made it look worse than it actually was. But he also doesn't shrink from it.
Jackson freely admitted that without being that guy, he might have never gotten to be this guy.
"All the things that happened to me my rookie year, or things I said or whatever-whatever, it put me in position for where I am now," he said. "It leaves room for growth. Who wants to be a young guy who has everything figured out? I don't think any young guy wants to be. That's from the greats to the not-so-greats. I don't think anyone wants to come in and just have everything figured out. You want to leave room for growth, and you want to leave room to mature.
"That was one thing that happened for me. I was blessed to get this coaching staff going into my third year, and that's what they were all about. They were all about flushing the past and rebuilding and starting from now. That's one thing coach (Matt Rhule) preached as soon as he got here. 'We're going from now, we're not going to judge anybody based on what they did in the past. We only know you from coaching you.' It's just maturity man, and growing in the game."
Jackson said that between struggling on the field his second year, and losing a trusted coach in Rivera, and all his OGs leaving along the way, he was ready for the change that Rhule and a new staff offered.
"Year two told me, when I got done with that year, I flushed everything," Jackson said. "I lost Coach Rivera, one of my favorite guys, and I came into year three with a whole new attitude. That is the reason why we get the Donte Jackson we get now."
Of course, there's a little more to it than that. Jackson still had to deal with a painful toe problem in his third season, but he became a different player. And as his new bosses saw, a different person.
"It's great to coach him," Panthers defensive pass game coordinator Jason Simmons said of the Jackson he inherited last year. "I think the biggest thing, the hardest thing, is to not judge someone based on what you heard prior. Give them an opportunity to show you who they are. He was open to let us coach him, and we were open to giving him a brand new start.
"And he's been great. As coaches, we can't take credit for just the maturity. It's his family life, his kid, his girl; that's what he's about. That will mature any man."
And it has matured Jackson.
September 16, 2021 at 10:00PM
https://www.panthers.com/news/donte-jackson-learned-the-hard-way-now-he-teaches
Donte Jackson learned the hard way, now he teaches - Panthers.com
https://news.google.com/search?q=hard&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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