The Minnesota Vikings community is still mourning over the death of Khyree Jackson, who tragically lost his life in a car accident a few weeks ago.
Three men in total, including Jackson, all passed away in the crash.
The men, 24-year-old Jackson, 23-year-old Isaiah Hazel, and 24-year-old Anthony “AJ” Lytton Jr., was driving in their Dodge Charger when they were run off the road on Route 4 in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, by an alleged drunk driver Cori Clingman.
Jackson was a standout at Oregon last season and was selected by the Vikings in the fourth round of the NFL Draft in April.
According to Maryland State Police, the horrific crash occurred when Clingman, driving an Infiniti, was trying to change lanes at high speed and collided with their car, forcing them to hit several trees. Clingman then hit another vehicle, but neither she, the two passengers in her car, nor the driver in the third car were injured. Jackson and Hazel were pronounced dead at the scene, while Lytton Jr. died at a nearby hospital.
The Minnesota Vikings took to social media to pay tribute to their rookie cornerback.
The friends bonded while playing football together at Wise High School, and their former coach, Dalawn Parrish, remembered them as always being close in an interview with WUSA9 News. “All of those young men were tight … [they] played together,” said Coach Parrish. “It’s amazing that they went three separate ways in terms of going to college and playing football but were still always together when they came back home in the summertime.”
Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell said he was “absolutely crushed by this news.”
“Khyree brought a contagious energy to our facility and our team. His confidence and engaging personality immediately drew his team-mates to him,” he said, according to BBC News. “In our short time together, it was evident Khyree was going to develop into a tremendous professional football player, but what was more impressive was his desire to become the best person he could be for his family and those around him.”
Minnesota Vikings Make Unprecedented Gesture For Fallen Rookie Khyree Jackson
According to multiple NFL Insiders on Monday, the Vikings organization is taking unprecedented steps to honor Jackson, who was only with the organization a brief time before his tragic death.
“The #Vikings will cover a significant portion of the funeral expenses for Khyree Jackson, who tragically passed away in a car accident earlier this month,” NFL Insider Ari Meirov tweeted on Monday. “They will also pay out the remainder of his signing bonus to his estate and honor him with a decal on their helmets this season. His No. 31 will not be worn by any player this season.”
Jackson’s signing bonus was $827,000 so that’s a substantial amount of money the Minnesota Vikings are paying to his estate.
General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, O’Connell, and other coaches and staffers will be traveling to attend the funeral. The Vikings also announced that they’ll be holding a celebration of Jackson’s life in Minnesota, with details to come at a later date.
Throughout this season, the Minnesota Vikings will be wearing helmet decals bearing the initials KJ. Coaches will have the initials on lapel pins. Jackson’s No. 31 will go unused this season, and his locker at TCO Performance Center will remain visible and untouched.
“Throughout the draft process and then his early time being a Minnesota Viking, you felt a guy that had such a laser focus on what his mission, his plan was,” O’Connell said. “And it really showed up in the spring. He had a very good spring and was really looking to coming back to training camp and being well on his way on that path to having a big impact on our team for this year.”
“Between his joy, the way he attacked life, and then that hard-working spirit was partly why we were so excited to add him to this building, to this culture,” Adofo-Mensah said. “It’s a tragedy that he’s not here.”
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