Sir Thomas Jackson: storming the football field

Name: Sir Thomas Jackson

Hometown: Seattle, Washington

Year: Junior

Major: Family Studies and Human Development minor nutrition

Linebacker for the University of Arizona football team, Sir Thomas Jackson has gone from being a “walk-on” his freshman year to a successful and recognized player. You’ll be hearing his name over the stadium sound system for sure!

Are you excited for the season to start with the game against NAU?

Yeah! 9 more days!

How long have you been playing football?

I’ve been playing since I was 6.

Do you like your position as linebacker?

Yeah, I like it. I like to hit people haha.

Was playing college football always your goal?

Yes, I want to play for the NFL too.

How was being a “walk-on” player your freshman year?

It was hard coming from being well-known at your high school and town to being a walk-on, but it’s a humbling experience.

Since you’ve been on the team, you’ve received more and more recognition each year. You’ve made a name for yourself. How does it feel starting as a “walk-on” and progressing to one of the well-known players?

It’s a good feeling to know that all of the hard work you were putting in all of your life is being paid off. It’s humbling.

Are you close with the other players on the team?

Yeah, we’re a close group of people. You know, we hang out with each other a lot outside of football and we’re always together. We don’t really interact with many people outside of football. We’re together most of the day. We work out together. We eat. We have our own cafeteria now and we meet a lot.  We have we’re just all so close together in the new facility.

How do you like the new Lowell-Stevens football facility?

I like it a lot. It’s big, brand new. Players can play video games in there. They have a computer lab for us, and a lot of technology. It’s really nice. It will be a better program now, because it will keep us focused.

Yes, I know it was reported recently that the U of A is one of the smartest football teams in the nation.

Yeah, GPA wise we rose a lot this past semester.

How is it balancing school, practice, and traveling during the school year?

It’s really hard. You have to interact with your teacher or professor a lot because we’ll miss a lot of Thursdays or Fridays just to fly out to away games. Even during the week is hard because we have a lot on our schedule. We try to make everything work, but sometimes it’s really difficult. It’s all about time management, like anything else.

How do you feel about the team this year with new recruits? Do you think the team will be more successful than last year?

I think we should be more successful. Our defense is more experienced. We were young last year. Our offense will be good again with Ka’Deem Carey. So we’ll see what happens.

Do you get nervous before games?

Not really, no more. The only time I get nervous is running out to the crowd, but after that I don’t even pay no mind. I feel like I’m in the zone, so I’m just playing against the other time.

Is it nice having an extremely big, spirited student section like Zona zoo behind you while you play, or do you just block it out?

No, when I’m on the sideline I look at the crowd because it’s right there on us. It’s pretty cool. We travel to other places and they have no student crowd. I wish it was on the other teams side too to scare them haha.

What’s your goal for the future with football and beyond graduation?

NFL. I feel like that should be anyone’s goal if they play football, to want to be at the highest level. If not, still stay in the gam maybe from a coaching standpoint. With my major, I want to interact with the youth, so we’ll see about that.

See Sir Thomas Jackson #53 in action at the season opening game this Friday, Aug. 30!