THIS IS THE SEASON OF LAMAR, AND RELUCTANTLY, HE IS THE NFL’S MEGASTAR
The 49ers don’t look worthy, and you know about Travis and Taylor and Who Knows Who, but Jackson is unstoppable as a two-way threat, knowing deep down that it’s a perfect time to win a championship
Parading the ball with his left hand, in an exhibitionist mode, he slammed into the money zone with his fourth touchdown Saturday — two running, two passing — then veered up a tunnel in the Baltimore stadium. Would he ever return? Lamar Jackson stayed there for several moments in a rocking scene until coming back and finding a crew of photographers, who took his picture after he kept flipping away cameras the entire game.
He won’t be America’s idol. He doesn’t want to be. His post-game interviews are uninspired, when Patrick Mahomes is nice to the audience and Aaron Rodgers has killed field producers for airtime, but as the NFL’s two-time MVP, Jackson should start realizing he’s a fixed luminous point in the nationwide sky. He still recoils from publicity after six seasons in the limelight. We won’t look away when he’s two victories from winning his first Super Bowl.
“No tomorrow,” he said.
Anything else Saturday? Not much, but in a recent sitdown interview, he did reveal certain thoughts about time passages. “Damn, I’m getting older,” Jackson told The Athletic. “I’ve got to get a championship now.” Much better.
Only 27, he can think about more than one. Finally, he has reached the AFC championship game, discarding a 1-3 postseason record with a 34-10 victory over the Houston Texans. The Baltimore Ravens aren’t required to go anywhere as the conference’s top seed, having one week off and remaining at home this week to play the Buffalo-Kansas City winner. Was the league too advantageous in granting so much runway to regular-season champions in a 17-game regular season? The Ravens, like the San Francisco 49ers, had time to rest when no other team did, even when the 49ers won a two-way NFC tiebreaker to be No. 1. When Kansas City and Philadelphia reached the Super Bowl after finishing as top seeds last season, are we in for a slew of top-seeded big games despite Brock Purdy’s lame struggles against Green Bay?
Do the 49ers, who lucked out because the Packers had a rookie kicker Saturday night, have any chance? Purdy and a ball he couldn’t grip in the rain? Maybe Detroit has a better shot considering Jackson went to Santa Clara on Christmas Night and manhandled the defense, growling through teams since signing a $260 million contract — as his own agent — and having the freedom to change more plays via the new offensive coordinator, Todd Monken. It’s shocking to know so many franchises soured on Jackson as a free agent, viewing his playoff failure and injuries as a reason to avoid him. “Looking at it objectively, I’d say there’s some concern over how long he can play his style of game,” Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank said. “He’s missed five, six games each of the last two years. Each game counts a lot in our business.”
How fascinating to see the Falcons fire their coach and wait for Bill Belichick, with Blank taking him yachting by the U.S. Virgin Islands, while failing to find … a serious quarterback. Meanwhile, here’s Jackson, soon to be an MVP winner twice after winning the Heisman Trophy, all after some insiders denounced him as a two-way pro threat. Those doubts finally have ended, after they blared when he lost a 2019 playoff game as a first-time MVP. Saturday, he threw for 162 yards and rushed for 100 on 11 carries. So much for the opposing quarterback, C.J. Stroud, who was wondrous as a rookie but now has a taste of NFL greatness. Even Jackson knew the 1-3 knock against him.
“You know I heard that,” he said. “I don’t even got to hear it. I see it. But it is what it is. I really don’t care about what people say. ... Those guys just had our team’s number in the past, but it’s a different team.”
How different? “2019 is over with. We’re always talking about it,” he said. “I always find myself talking about it, but it’s different. That was my first full season (starting) in the NFL and my second year in the league, at that. But it’s a different mindset, a different group of guys. I just feel like all around, we’re different.”
A championship has been in view since he signed his deal, as his teammates sense. Someone who would know, veteran receiver Odell Beckham Jr., crashed a postgame interview chanting “My MVP!” on ESPN. “His eyes are on that prize,” Beckham said. “His approach, if anything, he looks even more focused and locked in than ever. He’s the leader, the heart and soul of this team.”
“All the accomplishments he’s had individually, he likes it (and) everything like that, but he always preaches how he wants a Super Bowl,” safety Geno Stone said.
He repeated his message at halftime of a 10-10 game. “A lot of cursing,” Jackson said. The Texans realized what was coming.
“Lamar is a dog. I’ve been a fan of his since high school,” Stroud said. “It’s really an honor to share the field with a player like that.”
“Credit to Lamar,” coach DeMeco Ryans said. “He made a ton of great plays. That’s why he’s the MVP.”
He made more history, as the first quarterback to rush for 100 yards in three postseason games. Only three times since 1948 has a QB thrown for 100 yards, rushed for 100 years and had a 100 passer rating. The Hundred, call him. Wrote a fan, named LeBron James: “Man I LOVE Lamar Jackson!!!!!!”
As he sat on the bench in the final minutes, in his cap and scarf, Jackson could have looked around to understand the public’s awareness. Nearby, Peyton Manning was standing with his 12-year-old son, Marshall, who didn’t wear his father’s old jersey. He wore a Lamar Jackson outfit, as Jim Harbaugh stood near them while waiting for his brother, John, the Ravens coach. Imagine one Harbaugh winning a national championship at Michigan, then taking an NFL job likely to be in Los Angeles, and the other Harbaugh brother winning his second Super Bowl.
It’s possible, now that we’ve seen Purdy have issues in his two biggest games this season, one against the Ravens and the other against the Packers. Did you wince when the former Raiders CEO, Amy Trask, brought back his Mr. Irrelevant days on television? “Four games. Eight quarterbacks. Seven terrific quarterbacks, and Brock Purdy,” she said. Damn.
“Myself? Calm down,” Purdy said after the 24-21 victory. “Overall, you have to find a way to win.”
He survived and advances to another NFC championship game. But anyone who is looking ahead, how about a Super Bowl centered on Lamar Demeatrice Jackson Jr.? The photographers never will leave him alone.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.