When Vikings players enter the visitor’s locker room in Glendale, Ariz., for Monday night’s playoff against the Los Angeles Rams, there will be a locker set up for cornerback Khyree Jackson like there has been at every road game this season.
His No. 31 jersey will rest on a hanger like every player’s. There will be a Bible on his seat, opened to Jeremiah 29:11 — “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope” — one of Jackson’s favorite scriptures mentioned during the team’s celebration of his life in August.
Receiver Trent Sherfield Sr. will also bookmark James 1:12, which reads in part, “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial,” because coach Kevin O’Connell included the verse in his speech at that team celebration.
The 24-year-old Jackson, one of three young men who died in a Maryland car accident on July 6, left an indelible mark on many Vikings players and coaches, who say they have felt his presence during a magical 14-win season. That presence goes beyond the many tangible ways the organization continues to honor him.
“It just kind of happened organically,” Sherfield said. “I came into the locker room my first preseason game and my locker was right next to his, and I really didn’t take that lightly. It was one of those things like, man, here was a guy who was my teammate who I was just looking at eye to eye and speaking to just a couple months ago, and he’s no longer with us. I just wanted to just pay my respects.”
The Vikings have kept the Jackson family close, said Khyree’s mother, Ebbony, hosting them for games this season. They were captains at what would’ve been Jackson’s first preseason game on Aug. 10 after the team selected him in the fourth round of the 2024 draft. A locker remains set up for Jackson at TCO Performance Center in Eagan, where running back Aaron Jones often orders fresh yellow flowers to be placed there at the end of most weeks.
On Monday night, players will continue to wear “K.J.” helmet decals while coaches have worn those initials on pins. Edge rusher Dallas Turner, a fellow rookie who played with Jackson at Alabama, has donned a pregame workout shirt with his friend’s name and picture that reads “will be missed forever.” A Vikings spokesperson said the team paid Jackson’s signing bonus of more than $800,000 to his estate and $20,000 in funeral and travel expenses.
“They have honored Khyree and embraced and showed up for our family during the most challenging time of our lives,” Ebbony Jackson wrote in a text message. “We wear our K.J. pins proudly and love that coach K.O. consistently displays his pin on game days.”
