By Brian Helberg
Football was never the end goal for Jason Tucker. However, life has a funny way of guiding you towards your destiny. The BC Lions receivers coach was a star on the track, the gridiron and the hardwood in high school, but football presented him with an offer he couldn’t refuse.
“As a kid, I was always playing basketball,” said Tucker.
“I pretty much lived in the gym. That was my dream. I was going to be in the NBA dunk contest, all-star weekend, I was going to be an NBA player. It was never my ambition to be an NFL player.
I had a decision to make after high school. I had a full scholarship to play football and I was only getting partial scholarships to play basketball. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to pick the full scholarship to go play football.”
Jason accepted a scholarship to attend Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, TX. The lanky wideout had an impressive career with the Horned Frogs, hauling in 78 passes for 1,197 yards and five touchdowns across 31 career games.
Tucker entered the 1998 NFL Draft and showed incredible athleticism during the scouting combine. The former high school sprinter ran the 40-yard dash in 4.48 seconds and finished near the top of the pack in the agility drills. Randy Moss, Hines Ward, Kevin Dyson and future CFLer Ryan Thelwell were just a few of the receivers in Jason’s draft class.
The Cincinnati Bengals were intrigued enough to select Jason in the sixth round. Tucker attended his first professional training camp in the summer of 1998 and it was an experience he won’t soon forget.
“Cincinnati was not the place you want to go to as a rookie,” said Tucker with a chuckle.
“At that time, the facilities were horrible and everything about that organization was bad. You even had to bring your own shoes.
To top it off, the practice facility was by an industrial area. When the wind blew the wrong way, we had to cancel practice. Cincinnati was certainly not what I was expecting from my first NFL experience.”
Jason pulled a hamstring in training camp with the Bengals and was let go by the club. It may have been a blessing in disguise, as after a short stint on the Green Bay Packers practice roster and a tour of duty with the Rhein Fire of NFL Europe, Tucker found himself at training camp with the Dallas Cowboys in the summer of 1999.
“When I first got to training camp in Dallas, I was in awe,” said Jason from his Texas home.
“I’m there with Emmitt Smith, Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, Larry Allen, Nate Newton, Erik Williams, Darrell Johnston, Deion Sanders, Darren Woodson; it was a long list of hall-of-famers that I grew up watching. I wondered if I even belonged on the same field with these guys.””
The special teams ace was a key contributor during his two seasons with America’s Team. Over the course of 31 regular season games, Jason carved out a role for himself in the return game and also on offence. He finished his Cowboys career with 36 receptions for 565 yards, two receiving touchdowns and 1,773 return yards. Jason was the catalyst for an unexpected playoff run when he registered back-to-back 100-yard performances down the stretch for Dallas in 1999.
“Being from Texas, playing in Texas Stadium was a dream come true,” said Jason.
“The only bad part about playing so close to home was the number of requests I got for free tickets from family and friends. I always made sure my wife, my kids, my mother and my mother-in-law had tickets, but that was it. I had a rule with my extended family that I would buy tickets to one game, and after that, they were on their own if they wanted to come to the games.”
The next stop for Jason and his family was Canada. After getting released by the Cowboys at the end of the 2001 preseason, Tucker took his talents north of the border, signing with the Edmonton Eskimos. He impressed the Esks’ staff thanks to a few tips from his Cowboys’ teammate and former CFLer Rocket Ismael, and the rest, as they say, is history.
“Ed Hervey, Terry Vaughn and Rick Walters took me under their wing my first year with the Eskimos,” said Tucker.
“The one thing I wasn’t prepared for was the pace of the game. I joke about this when I’m coaching, but at some point, you’re going to be so tired during a game that the only thing you’ll be able to hear is your breathing. All you do is run in the CFL.”
It didn’t take Jason long to establish himself as one of the best pass-catchers in the league, earning a CFL All-Star selection as a rookie in 2002. He became a household name when he was awarded with the Grey Cup MVP following a 132-yard performance in the 2003 Grey Cup.
“The best memory I have is winning my first Grey Cup in ’03,” said the TCU alum.
“Going all the way back to pee wee football as a kid, that was my first championship ever. It was surreal to win the Grey Cup. The cherry on top was winning the MVP of the game. It’s still one of the happiest memories I have from my career.
It was made even sweeter because we had lost the Grey Cup the year before against Montreal. We were all business in ’03. Nothing was going to stop us from redeeming ourselves. Even if we were down in a game, we just knew that the other team wasn’t going to beat us.”
Jason came back even stronger in 2004, establishing a career-high with 1,632 receiving yards. He scored a total of 34 touchdowns between 2004 and 2006, and was named a CFL All-Star in each of those three seasons. Edmonton won another Grey Cup in 2005.
Entering the 2008 season, Tucker knew that his career was winding down. He was hoping to play two more seasons and then call it a career. His goal, much like any other superstar athlete, was to go out on his own terms.
Unfortunately, that plan took a detour on July 25th, 2008 when Jason was involved in a helmet-to-helmet hit with Jykine Bradley of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Tucker fractured his C6-C7 vertebrae on the play and his whole life changed in that moment.
“When I first got hurt, the doctors told me I was lucky to be able to walk,” said Jason.
“I’ll never forget the outpouring of love I got from the fans in Edmonton and the fans around the league when I got hurt.”
The injury led to Jason’s retirement, but he has no regrets about leaving when he did. He dazzled fans in Edmonton for seven seasons and gave everything he had to the organization. Ultimately, Jason left at the top of his game and had nothing left to prove.
“I considered coming back, but I knew that I wouldn’t be the same player. I played with reckless abandon and I knew I couldn’t do that if I was afraid of getting hurt again. Being healthy to play with my kids was also a huge priority for me. I didn’t want to add stress to my wife and kids.”
After hanging up his shoulder pads, Jason decided to pursue a career in coaching. Long considered a cerebral player by his peers, Tucker was hired to coach the Edmonton receivers in 2009.
“During my years in Dallas, we had a receivers coach who had previously been an offensive coordinator. In meetings, he would give us an overview of what all the other offensive positions were supposed to be doing on every play. That kind of got me into coaching and those meetings ended up being a very valuable lesson.
As the years progressed, I started looking at what the different responsibilities of each position were. Doing extra work in the classroom allowed me to be a student of the game. I could see the play developing and the game slowed down for me. I knew what our offence was doing and because of that, I could then predict what the defence would do.”
Tucker left Edmonton after the 2010 season. He went on to coach with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, Tennessee Titans, Montreal Alouettes and back again with Edmonton in 2019. Reminiscent of his high school recruiting days, this past offseason Jason was presented with an offer he couldn’t refuse – the chance to reunite with his former teammate, Ed Hervey.
“It’s like brothers getting back together,” said Jason when asked to describe the excitement he has to be working with Hervey. “Ed and I never lost contact with each other. We’ve always had a strong bond and I knew we would work together again at some point.
With Ed, you know he is always going to be up front and honest with you. That’s you can ask for in this business. You always know where you stand with Ed and I really appreciate that about him. Ed isn’t in this game for selfish reasons, he does what’s best for the organization while taking time to help players out along the way.”
Above all, Jason is thrilled that his football life took him north of the border. He is proud to be part of such a historic league and to be able to call Canada home for half the year.
“What I love most about the CFL is that it’s still just a game,” says Tucker. “It’s like when you were a kid playing football in the street with your buddies – that’s the CFL. It’s still a kid’s game. The guys that play in the CFL love the game and love what they do.
I love Canadians. I love CFL fans and I love Canada.”
Canada loves you too, Jason. Welcome to the Den!
VIA: https://www.bclions.com/2020/06/09/jason-tucker-lions-receivers-will-be-learning-from-an-all-time-great/
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