On Friday, the fourth and final installment of “In the Life With Steven Jackson,” which we co-produced, will air at http://inthelife.sj39.com.
The goal of the short documentary, which is essentially what “In the Life” is, was to give fans an unprecedented look into the life of one of the NFL’s superstars. It was also to realize Steven’s brand identity in a way that, to my knowledge, no athlete has done for himself before. What made the latter possible, really, was Steven. He is exactly the person who comes across on camera: an athlete with an incomparable work ethic and determination, a thoughtful, humble and occasionally hilarious person with a maturity well beyond his 26 years. For most of a week, we were part of his life, and everyone we met — especially his parents — could not have been more welcoming or helpful.
Shooting "In the Life With Steven Jackson"
As you might imagine, there were a number of memorable moments over the course of production. I thought I’d share some of them here.
Never Been Hit
While we were shooting one of his training sessions, we asked Steven to recount the hardest he’d ever been hit. He was in the middle of a drill, and when he finished, he stopped and gave the question a lot of thought.
“I’ve never really been hit that hard,” he said.
Alex and Elan, our two cameramen, shared skeptical looks.
“What about Sheldon Brown?” Elan asked.
If you haven’t seen the hit that Sheldon Brown put on Steven last season, it’s below. Steven goes flying and his helmet gets blown off. I actually watched the game, and like pretty much everyone, I’m guessing, the takeaway from the play was, “Damn, that was a monster hit.”
What I didn’t notice at the time, but which you’ll see in the video above, is Steven’s reaction. Not only does he leap right up, he actually does his touchdown celebration — rolling the dice — and strides right back to the huddle.
So when Elan asked his question, Steven looked right at him, and then — in so many words — communicated that Brown’s hit didn’t phase him in the slightest.
“Lawyer Milloy, one time…” he said, his voice trailing off as he searched for an answer. Finally, seemingly stumped, he went back to the drill.
An Aside on Ocho Cinco
One day when we were at lunch, the subject of Chad Ocho Cinco came up. Steven asked if we read 85’s Twitter posts and shook his head, laughing, telling us how crazy they were.
He went on to tell us that, hard as it might be to believe, Ocho Cinco was totally different when he was one-on-one and away from the cameras — down-to-earth, a friend and a good guy.
He Can Throw, Too
As we were wrapping up shooting one night, Elan and I challenged Steven to a throwing contest. Standing in the end zone of the high school field where Steven trained, we each took a shot at heaving the football as far as we could. Elan and I did our best Doug Flutie impressions, and roughly launched the ball about 40 yards, give or take. (There was no time to warm up.)
Then, from deep in the end zone, Steven took his turn. If throwing a football were Olympic ice skating, Steven would have gotten straight twos from the judges on style points. Based on the trajectory, the heave could easily have been mistaken for a punt by someone happening along at that moment, which made the end result all the more shocking. Released at a 65 degree angle, the ball vanished to a pinpoint in the sky before plummetting like a meteor well past the 50 yard-line. Had Steven let the ball go the way normal people throw (as in more horizontally than vertically), it easily could have covered two-thirds of the field.
Freight Train
I’ll leave you with this last bit because few people will ever know what it’s like to have Steven Jackson headed at them at full speed.
It happened to two of us during shooting. Steven was running a drill — basically, tracing an L between three cones and then back again — when I made the mistake of standing a few feet in front of where he was going to finish. We’re the same height, but that’s where the similarities end, and while I was fortunate enough to step out of the way, there was a moment where it looked like he might steamroll me.
It’s difficult to put into words what that moment felt like, but Alex did it perfectly after it happened to him.
While operating a glidecam, Alex rushed at Steven, who was in mid-sprint, to get a moving close-up. He got too close, and came within inches of having Steven barrel into him. Even with the glidecam and the camera, Alex would be hard pressed to crack 180. Steven is listed on the Rams web site at 236. It would have been a Mack truck hitting a Honda Civic.
Right after the near-miss, Alex took a moment to catch his breath and collect himself.
Steven, smiling, asked, “You scared?”
Alex didn’t answer. Again, Steven offered up, “You scared?”
Finally, Alex looked up at him.
“Yessir,” he said. “I am scared. I’m actually pretty sure I just wet myself.”
