For most of the young people in the audience, Tom Jackson is more known for his run as an ESPN analyst that has now gone on for more than 20 years and holy crap I’m getting old.
Before that, however, Jackson was an outstanding linebacker at both the NFL level with the Denver Broncos and in college with the Louisville Cardinals.
It’s the latter piece of his past that had Jackson making an appearance Wednesday in Louisville for the Governor’s Cup Classic luncheon, held annually to hype the Louisville-Kentucky football game that will be held Sept. 4 this year.
While lamenting the fact that he never got to take part in the game -- after their 1924 game, the two schools didn’t meet again until 1994 -- Jackson’s main focus was the future of the in-state rivalry; specifically, the two men now charged with leading their respective programs.
Both Louisville’s Charlie Strong and Kentucky’s Joker Phillips are in their first years as head coach, and Jackson feels that the presence of the long-time friends-turned-football-adversaries will greatly enhance the rivalry.
“It’s Kentucky and Louisville, and as the years go on, it almost doesn’t matter what sport. You say Kentucky-Louisville, you automatically get a certain amount of intensity that comes with that,” Jackson said according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.
“I think it’s going to be enhanced by the fact that these two young African-American coaches are coaching these two football teams. I can’t see that it wouldn’t be.”
Kentucky has had Louisville’s number the past three years, but the Cardinals won four in a row in the years prior to that streak. Since the series resumed in 1994, Louisville holds a 9-7 advantage.
Now, with two young and vibrant coaches in place, the “excitement” “builds” for just where this rivalry is headed, right? Right???
