Turner, the first-round pick who played two seasons with Jackson for the Crimson Tide, still talks to his friend.
“Tell him I miss him,” Turner said. “Tell him how it is, just talking to him how I’d talk to him if he was here.”
Jackson’s improbable journey to the Vikings included stops at junior colleges and time away from the sport before returning to earn his way to the top of college football at Alabama and Oregon. The confident and outspoken Jackson always wore a smile.
Turner tries to embody Jackson’s resiliency and joy daily.
“You know when Khyree in the room,” Turner said. “He going to make you laugh, he going to tell you some real stuff. Everybody might not like him, but he was always going to be real and authentic. … He was one of the mentally strongest people I know, because what he overcame throughout his life in general, above football, and seeing how he talked and the confidence he had with everything he did. That kind of lit a light in me. He helped me realize who I was.”
Vikings edge rusher Dallas Turner warms up in a T-shirt honoring Khyree Jackson before the team’s Jan. 5 game against the Lions in Detroit. (Elizabeth Flores/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
All three men who died in the July car accident attended Wise High School in Prince George’s County in Maryland. Three Vikings players — Turner, defensive tackle Taki Taimani and receiver Jeshaun Jones — joined O’Connell, General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and three assistant coaches in attending the joint funeral there for Jackson and Isaiah Hazel.