Golden Nuggets: DeSean Jackson's Father's Drive Created Rifts With Coaches

Early June brings the release of DeSean Jackson: The Making of a Father's Dream, a documentary that chronicles Bill Jackson's drive to put his sons in the NFL. At times Bill's wishes conflicted with those of DeSean's coaches. This led DeSean's relationship with Andy Reid to begin with an awkward conversation.

"Hey, I just want to say one thing," said Jackson, calling together his inner circle. "I was on the phone with Andy Reid. He said, ‘I don’t want your family to be a problem. I don’t want to deal with your dad.’ He said some bad things. I just wanted to let you know. That’s kind of messed up, though."

Jeff Tedford makes an appearance in the documentary and discusses the disconnect between Bill's goals and the team's goals.

With all that manpower dedicated to a common goal, DeSean was able to maximize the immense amount of natural talent that just oozed out of him. That singular focus of developing an NFL player also created some problems. Cal head coach Jeff Tedford worried that team goals were taking a back seat to the individual pursuit of making it to the show. And Bill Jackson was so determined to make that dream a reality, that he at times took his advocacy for his son’s cause too far.

"While I understood what Bill’s motives were he didn’t always go about it the right way," said Tedford. "As far as alienating people or really being loud outside of the locker room and things like that. If DeSean only caught a couple balls in the game, he wanted him to catch 10. He was driven for DeSean to be successful."

Bill could be a handful (Reid obviously had heard as much) but it’s clear that it came from a good place. And ultimately, his plan worked.

He watched from a hospital bed as the Eagles beat the Giants in the Divisional Round to advance to the NFC Championship in DeSean’s rookie year. His son had four grabs for 81 yards in that game. Earlier that day, Bill had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. That was January 11, 2009. He passed away May 14 of that year.

The documentary will be released on June 7th.

Football

• Wilner compares the Pac-12's OOC schedules to those from the rest of the nation. Pac-12 has the toughest schedules followed, surprisingly, by the SEC.
• Uncle Ted checks in on the state of Pac-12 recruiting. Cal currently has two commits.
• Wilner predicts the all-conference first and second teams. He expects Deandre Coleman (defense), Cole Leininger (punter), and Avery Sebastian (special teams) to make the first team and Brendan Bigelow (all-purpose) to make the second team.
• Former Louisiana Tech strength and conditioning coach Damon Harrington has been hired as Cal's new S & C coach. Former coach Blasquez has become the athletic department's director of strength and conditioning.
• With the passing of Chuck Muncie, Faraudo ponders Cal's top running backs.

Swimming and Diving

• The UC Regents approved a new aquatics facility. Construction should begin this summer and finish by the end of 2014.

Tennis

• Coach Amanda Augustus was named the ITA Northwest Region Coach of the Year. Six Bears earned spots on either the Pac-12 or ITA all-conference/region teams.
• Christopher Johnson and Campbell Johnson earned the Pac-12 Doubles Team of the Year award. Johnson was named the Top Newcomer in the Pac-12 and a Player to Watch in the ITA Northwest Region.

Water Polo

• The women's team was selected to play in the 2013 World University Games.

Softball

• Led by Jolene Henderson on the first team, seven Bears earned All-Pac-12 honors.