Rickey, Rickey, Rickey!!!

#57

Whenever I see that number only one thing comes to my mind. Rickey Jackson. Rickey Jackson was a linebacker for the New Orleans Saints for over 13 seasons during the 80's and 90's. I can remember him just thrashing through the line and wrecking havoc on the opposing quarterback. He was a menace. Unstoppable.

What made Rickey so unique and special was that he made everyone around him so much better. Just ask Pat Swilling. Just recently the Hall of Fame announced the semi-finalists for the 2006 HOF. Kevin Greene, Richard Dent, and Andre Tippipet made up some of the names for the defensive side of the ballot. Yet once again Rickey Jackson was left off.

Here's my case for Rickey stat wise. He played in 227 games over 15 seasons. 128 sacks!!! That's 10 on the all time sacks list. Only Dent, Greene, and L.T. are ahead of him that are classified as linebackers. He had 6 seasons with double digit sack totals. 6 times was selected to Pro Bowl. He recovered over 28 fumbles second only to Jim Marshall, and had 8 interceptions.

Now what doesn't get mentioned in those stats was that he was the initiator of the Dome Patrol. There would be no Dome Patrol without Rickey. Those 4 LB's were good, but Rickey made them great. He once had a streak of consecutive games played going when he got into a horrific car crash. I'm not talking about a fender bender. He wrapped his car around a telephone poll and walked away. He was definitely hurt, but played that next week with a grill that consisted of as many face bars a helmet could contain with a Dark Vader sheild to protect his eyes. The man was a machine. He played with such an intensity that teams had to game plan around him. Whenever we needed a big play he was always there to make one. If you think of other great LB's such as Derrick Thomas and Wilbur Marshall deserve to go to Hall then Rickey has to be right there above them. The problem with Rickey was that he played in a medium/small market team that rarely got national attention. Though if you ask any player from that decade about Rickey Jackson they will tell the same story of a man who dominated at his position. I would love to see Rickey inducted into the Hall of Fame, it would brighten up the small display that Saints have of Doug Atkins, Jim Finks, and Tom Dempsey's shoe. So for every year that Rickey is not on the ballot I laugh because in my mind he's already there.