The phone rang and Jackson Powers-Johnson was in trouble.
“I was in second grade and I got a call from the principal,” his mother, Jennifer, said in a phone interview. “She had Jackson in his office and said that Jackson doesn’t let any of the other kids win at sports during recess.”
Jennifer was lost.
Had he hit someone or was someone hurt?
No, said the director. You just shouldn’t always need to win.
Jennifer explained that Jackson was raised to always do his best.
“I didn’t know what they wanted me to say,” he said.
Jackson finished the rest of second grade without recess and the family changed schools.
“We didn’t want to discourage him from that competitive spirit,” he said.
Fast forward to today and Las Vegas Raiders coach Antonio Pierce would like to give Mom a hug. His son is now a 6-foot-3, 334-pound guard whom the Raiders selected in the second round of the NFL Draft last month. Pierce has said he’s looking for players with upside, and at Oregon, Powers-Jackson definitely played with a streak.
“I saw a guy who was brave, who finished, who worked hard, who loved the physical aspect of the game,” Pierce said.
Powers-Jackson had found a way to channel his negative energy in football and the sport has brought out the best in him.
“This means everything to me,” Powers-Johnson said at the team’s rookie camp two weeks ago. “I came into this game pretty much for my mental health. I was a big, chubby kid growing up and I got bullied and my baseball coach told me, ‘You know you can hit those guys and not get in trouble,’ and that’s how I got into this.”
He was a year-round baseball player who didn’t want toys or video games. But Powers-Johnson had a hard time adjusting until he was about 9 years old.
“Ever since he was little, he was always bigger than everyone else,” Jennifer said. “It was difficult for others to be friends with someone who always dominated you physically, so they said very bad things to him and excluded him.”
That’s when the baseball coach suggested football.
The first day with pads was tough and Powers-Johnson hated it. That’s when his parents told him he had to hit the other players before they hit him.
“And after that, he was a monster,” Jennifer said, laughing. “He was like, ‘I can hit these kids and it’s just part of the game and I don’t get in trouble and everyone’s happy when I do it.’ And he was really good at it.”
The youngest of four children, Powers-Johnson was raised in Draper, Utah. He helped Corner Canyon High to three straight undefeated seasons and state championships before signing with Oregon.
Actually, his name was Jackson Light when he was a child. He changed his name legally when he was 18 years old.
“My stepfather came into my life when I was 3 years old, he raised me my whole life,” she said. “I look like him, I talk like him and he is the one who got me into sports. … My mom wasn’t really a big sports fan, she now she’s probably one of the biggest. But I made that decision when she was 7 or 8 years old. I thought, ‘Okay, he’s my dad,’ and I knew when he was 18 he was going to change my name. So, Powers is my mother’s maiden name and Johnson is my stepfather’s last name.”
First, she had to make her stepfather, James, sweat a little. Jackson had been excused from practicing in Oregon to make the legal change, and Facetimed his parents to tell them he was in court. James couldn’t believe that he had only been at school a month before getting into trouble.
That’s when the son told his parents his new name, and there wasn’t a dry eye on their phones.
“It’s really cool and it means the world to me,” Jackson said.
He then started at center and both guard positions at Oregon, and became the first Duck and Pac-12 player to win the Rimington Trophy, awarded to the nation’s best center. Powers-Johnson was never credited with allowing a sack in his three years, and even played defensive tackle in a bowl game against Oklahoma.
He also had a burger named after him at a local brewery. “The Big Jax” features two burgers, pulled pork, macaroni and cheese, bacon and cheese on a brioche bun.
Powers-Johnson enjoyed not only expressing his anger on the football field, but also standing up for others.
“I think my physicality and my violence have become a kind of greater protection,” he said. “I believe there is no greater honor or privilege than protecting someone. You think about our military, you think about the police, you think about all of them protecting us. That’s what we can do in the field. So, it’s humbling and also exciting.”
The Raiders managed to hit a bit in the recent rookie camp, and during one drill, Powers-Johnson sent a young assistant coach flying.
“I mean, it’s amazing, I’ll be honest,” he said. “I love the physicality, I love the violence. I think that’s how the sport should be played. And just putting on the helmet and going, I mean, it’s exciting. We don’t have the complete pads yet, but I’m excited about it. It’s been fun to be able to hit a little bit, even if it’s a bag.
“I feel sorry for that coach too. “I’ll take him to dinner.”
The coach/coach was first-year offensive assistant De’Andre Pierce, the head coach’s son, who will be happy to treat them both to dinner.
“I loved the (Powers-Jackson) movie,” Pierce said. “I saw a leader, I saw a winner, I saw a guy who just loves football. And you want that identity from the beginning. You always look at the teams, on the best teams it’s not the skill position. You want those gritty guys like we have on our D-line, you want them on the offensive line.
“And the more bad guys we can bring in with Kolton Miller, (Thayer) Munford and (Andre) James, it will be huge for us. But he’s got the attitude, man. I mean, talking to him on the phone was emotional even for me because of how excited I was. And it was like, damn, we did it right.
“It’s a perfect combination.”
Powers-Johnson also got emotional in that Draft call and promised Pierce he would “beat his ass” for him.
At his draft party, all his family and friends had Post-It notes, an homage to the movie “Draft Day,” where the general manager played by Kevin Costner has a player’s name written on a Post-It to remind him who to eventually write. Instead of “Vontae Mack no matter what” like in the movie, these notes read “Jackson Powers-Johnson no matter what.”
“My mom just wanted everyone who came to my recruiting party to do it, just to indicate that everyone was behind me,” he said. “It’s a very emotional moment, for sure, I was dehydrated after those tears, but it was incredible.”
“It didn’t matter where or when he was picked,” Jennifer said, “we were behind him no matter what. He was our number one choice.”
He later said that he never let the long draft process get to him.
“Blessed, never stressed,” he said. “I mean, this is just a great new opportunity for me. …For all the hard work, preparation and dedication I have put into my entire life, now you can have fun and play football.
“The dream has been achieved, but now there are new dreams to pursue.”
And new positions. The Raiders had Powers-Johnson working at left guard (Dylan Parham’s home last season) during rookie camp.
“It felt great,” he said. “I haven’t played left guard in a long time, but it’s a new challenge and it’s exciting. When you step out of your comfort zone or do something you haven’t done that much, it’s fun for me. That’s what football is about, that’s what life is about. You’re not going to do everything the same every day and now I get to do something new.
“And yeah, it’s been pretty smooth, but there are things I need to work on and that’s really exciting for me.”
Powers-Johnson grew up a Raiders fan… well, practically. His stepfather was a Miami Dolphins fan and then there was a phase of worshiping JJ Watt. But Jennifer’s father grew up in Oakland and her grandparents were Raiders season-ticket holders. And on a family vacation, Powers-Johnson became a member of Raider Nation when they all went to see the San Francisco 49ers play the Raiders at the Oakland Coliseum in a preseason game in 2010.
“The first NFL game I went to was a Raiders game… my parents were just hugging me because all the fans were crazy. But I thought it was cool that they were like chasing him and cursing up a storm.
“There’s so much rich history of people who are absolutely crazy and just want to get on with it, and that’s how I play.”
Putting on the Raiders helmet and jersey for the first time was truly a dream come true.
“If you accept the logo on the front, it will bless the name on the back,” Powers-Johnson said, “so I’m excited to play for the Raiders.
“The autumn wind is a pirate. I love it.”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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