Tristan Jackson is looking forward to a return that is even longer than his CFL-record 129-yarder.
Jackson is poised to travel 800 kilometres — to Regina from St. Albert, Alta. — to reunite with his teammates from the 2013 Saskatchewan Roughriders.
The first Saskatchewan team to post a home-field Grey Cup victory is to be honoured on Saturday — Legends Night.
At halftime of a CFL game between the Roughriders and Hamilton Tiger-Cats, the 2013 Roughriders will be inducted as a team into the SaskTel Plaza of Honour.
“I’m so excited,” the always-upbeat Jackson says. “I can’t wait!
“Me and Terrell Maze and Tyron Brackenridge and all those guys (from the 2013 Roughriders’ defensive backfield), we keep in touch. We probably talk every day. Me and Maze, we still see each other at least once a year.
“I can’t wait to get back and hang out. I just talked to Doubles (quarterback Darian Durant) and I can’t wait to see him. There are a lot of guys I probably haven’t seen since the Grey Cup year, so I’m super-excited. It’s going to be a good time.”
Shades of 2013.
“We were just so close,” Jackson recalls. “Like I tell everybody, that’s probably one of the closest teams I’ve been on.
“After practice, we always used to hang out at each other’s houses and play video games. We were always with each other.
“It was just one of those teams where we’d always hold each other accountable. There wasn’t any talking behind anybody’s backs. If there was something we needed to say in front of everybody, we’d say it.
“I think that’s what made us so close and what made that team special. To this day, in that DB room, we’re still really close.”
The tight-knit nature of the Corey Chamblin-coached team often paid dividends in close games.
“One-hundred per cent,” Jackson concurs. “It was about guys sticking together and looking out for each other.
“If a guy was having a bad week or you didn’t think he was doing what he was supposed to do, you’d say, ‘Hey, you’ve got to pick it up. We can’t do it like that.’
“We had a great leader in Coach Chamblin. He would never let us get too far off the road. He would keep us humble pretty quick, just with his coaching style.
“It was a great, great team.”
A team that he rejoined in late August of 2013 after a three-month intermission.
Jackson, who joined the Roughriders in 2011, was released shortly before training camp in 2013.
“I never hung my head,” he says. “Once they called me and released me, I was hurt, of course, because I knew it was a good team and I thought I had done enough when I got there to at least fight for a roster spot.
“I wasn’t mad. I just said, ‘It is what it is.’ ”
He also had a message for then-General Manager and Vice-President of Football Operations Brendan Taman.
“I told B.T., ‘If you get a chance to bring me back, I would love to come back,’ ” Jackson continues. “He said, ‘We’re not closing the door on you.’
“He called me back (in late August). He left me a voicemail when I was working (in the oil fields). I was so happy that I couldn’t call him back fast enough.
“He said, ‘T-Jack, we’ve got a scenario here.’ I said, ‘Well, if the scenario has anything to do with me signing with that team, I want to be there.’ He started laughing, said ‘OK,’ and we went from there.
“I came back and never looked back.”
Just under three months after Jackson was re-signed, he helped the Roughriders defeat Hamilton 45-23 in the 101st Grey Cup game, played at historic Mosaic Stadium.
The current, state-of-the-art Mosaic Stadium became a reality, at least from a planning perspective, when a landmark announcement was made on July 14, 2012, a few hours before the Roughriders played host to the B.C. Lions.
History was also made on the opening play of the fourth quarter, when Jackson returned a missed field goal 129 yards — the longest possible play in Canadian football.
“I think it’s just bragging rights with my son,” Jackson says of nine-year-old Caleb — who is nicknamed Turbo.
“He always tells me that, when he gets older, he’s going to be better than me. I know one thing: He won’t be able to beat my record for a touchdown.”
In the third quarter of that game, Jackson had returned an earlier missed field goal 60 yards.
“I told (Lions kicker) Paul McCallum, ‘If you miss this one, I’m going to score. I promise you,’ ” Jackson says with a laugh. “He was a great kicker. He had already missed one and I thought there was no way he was going to miss another one.
“But then he missed it, and it was deep in the end zone, too. I had no doubt in my mind that I was coming out. I knew I probably should have taken a knee (for a single point), because that’s the way we were taught, but I knew I was coming out.”
Very soon, he will be coming back to Saskatchewan, where he last suited up in 2015.
He spent the following season with the Ottawa REDBLACKS before leaving the game of football.
On March 7, 2019, he signed a one-day contract and retired as a Roughrider.
By that time, he was working full-time in the oil fields. He remains involved in that industry, but on the safety side.
Now 37, Jackson is a proud husband (to Patricia) and father of three. Caleb has two sisters — Kaliyah, 13, and Kezia, 2.
As much as the family enjoys life in the Edmonton area, Jackson still maintains ties to two parts of the world that are special to him.
“I have my Mississippi driver’s license and my Saskatchewan phone number,” says a Jackson, who was born in Beaumont, Miss.
“Those are two things that I really take pride in, for sure.”
Rider Pride is something he appreciates to this day.
“It’s the fans and the culture in Saskatchewan,” Jackson says. “Everybody makes you feel like you’re at home.
“Even though we didn’t have a good season in 2011 — the first year I was out there — the fans stuck with us. When they’d see you in the grocery store, they’d always show you so much love and were just so happy you were there.
“I was just so happy being out there. The way the people treated you made you feel like you were really special.”
