When Bills running back Fred Jackson was 12 years old, the college football movie The Program hit theaters. And it made quite an impression on young Fred. And had an effect on his mom as well.
Jackson said in an interview on SportsCenter that he was inspired by the character Alvin Mack, whose goal was to make enough money playing football to buy his mother a house, and Jackson made that his own goal as well -- a goal he recently accomplished.
“I was able to go get her a house,” Jackson said. “The Program was one of my favorite movies growing up. He promised her a house and gave her a doorknob he told her he would get her a house for once he got to the NFL. I made my mom that same promise right after that movie. I was able to do so this past offseason. She’s loving it, loving every minute of it, and it’s one of the proudest things I’ve ever done for my mom. Just to see her happy about it makes it all worth it.”
Jackson also shared the story of how he informed his mother that she had a new house, which came as a complete surprise to her: When she first saw the nice house she was moving into, she thought it was the home of another Bills player.
“I told her we were actually going to hang out with one of my teammates who wanted to meet her,” Jackson said. “She walked in and she saw pictures of my kids on the wall and she was like, ‘What is going on here? Why are there pictures of your kids on the wall?’ And that’s how I told it to her: I told her, ‘It’s your house and the kids are on the wall for you to look at.’”
A nice gift, from one of the NFL’s nice guys.