Jackson Turning Into a Real Catch

If quarterbacks are gunslingers, then wide receivers are riverboat gamblers. There’s a glide in the stride, a cocksure tilt to the head, an aura of confidence that things always go their way.

Chris Jackson is all that. He also has been one of the biggest catches for the Los Angeles Avengers in their inaugural Arena Football League season.

Going into tonight’s game against the San Jose SaberCats, Jackson has caught 76 passes for 1,106 yards and scored 22 touchdowns. He is among 14 players, including Avenger quarterback Todd Marinovich, vying for the league’s rookie-of-the-year award.

But even though both Avenger players are having very good seasons, and complement each other statistically, Jackson, 25, might have the edge.

He has started all 12 Avenger games, while Marinovich has started eight (and played in nine). Jackson is also among the league’s top 10 receivers in receptions (eighth), receiving yardage (third), average all-purpose yardage (ninth) and scoring (sixth).

“I think I’ve reached every goal I set. I wanted to be the leader on our team, as far as receiving yards and touchdowns,” Jackson said.

“One thing I wasn’t expecting, though, was to be a leader, the focal point of our team. And that’s a role I’ve accepted.”

But while the individual goals are fine, Jackson wishes the Avengers (3-9) could have had a better first season. While not yet mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, they have only a slim chance of snagging one of the league’s 12 postseason berths.

Perhaps most startling, Jackson has only been playing football since 1995.

He was a standout athlete at Mater Dei in basketball and track. Jackson was a point guard on two Southern Section Division I championship teams and once posted a 47-2 leap in the triple jump. He participated in spring football drills, but decided basketball was his future.

“I knew I could get a scholarship out of Mater Dei playing basketball and I didn’t want to jeopardize that,” he said.

To this day Mater Dei football Coach Bruce Rollinson wonders what it would have been like to have Jackson in a Monarch uniform. “You could see he had the speed and potential to be really good,” Rollinson said.

Jackson, awarded a basketball scholarship to UC Riverside, started playing football in college. He played one season at Riverside and another at Orange Coast College, attracting the interest of USC and Nebraska.

But it was Washington State, where Jackson’s brother Ray was a defensive back, that snapped him up.

“We looked at him, liked him and said to ourselves, ‘If we wait for his second year to recruit him, and those other schools talk to him, we won’t have a chance,’ ” Coach Mike Price said.

Jackson had one redshirt season, then played in all 11 games in 1996, starting three at flanker, and had 10 catches for 140 yards and two touchdowns. But his senior year was superb: In 12 games, including 10 starts, he had 54 receptions for 1,005 yards and 11 touchdowns for the Pacific 10 Conference champion Cougars. In the 1998 Rose Bowl against Michigan, he had five receptions for 89 yards.

“He was as good a receiver as we’ve had,” Price said. “I think if he’d had a third or fourth year of [Division I] play he would be on an NFL team now. He’s definitely NFL caliber.”

Jackson thought he was too. But it hasn’t worked out that way. He went to the Seattle Seahawks’ camp in 1998, and was cut. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers put him on their developmental squad, and later released him.

“I was disappointed, because I thought I had prepared myself well for [the NFL],” Jackson said. “But the battle in camp is not so much talent at that level. There are also political issues people might not understand. It’s a numbers game--who’s been in the league longer, got more experience, and sometimes they’ll take that experience over talent.”

After a tryout in Orlando for NFL Europe, he was drafted by Berlin. There wasn’t enough money, however, to get him, his wife and two sons over to Germany.

Other football scouts were watching, and when Avenger Coach Stan Brock called, Jackson was, well, receptive.

“First, going into the league, my standards were the NFL’s and I kind of looked down on the Arena league,” Jackson said. “. . . Now that I have played, I understand it takes a lot of hard work. There’s a lot of talent out here.”

Since the season opener against the Grand Rapids Rampage, when Jackson caught three passes for 36 yards and a touchdown, he has been a rock, posting seven games (including four in a row) with more than 100 yards receiving.

“He’s turned himself into probably our best receiver and most consistent receiver,” Brock said.

Marinovich said he couldn’t remember exactly when he and Jackson began to connect. “But he was the first receiver here I did click with. For a quarterback, the biggest thing about a receiver is you having confidence in him.”

Jackson is again drawing the notice of NFL scouts.

“In the back of my mind I’d still like to head back to the NFL,” he said. “But now that I’m here, I’m seeing how the team is turning around and how well it’s supported by the owner [Casey Wasserman], it makes me want to be a part of it.”