Former Seahawks QB Tarvaris Jackson, 36, dies in car accident

Former Seattle Seahawks quarterback Tarvaris Jackson, whose toughness as a starter in 2011 and willingness to adapt to a backup quarterback role when the team won the Super Bowl in 2013 endeared him to teammates and coaches, has died in a car accident at the age of 36.

Jackson, who played four seasons overall with Seattle as part of a 10-year NFL career, was reportedly involved in a one-car accident at 8:50 p.m. Sunday near his native Montgomery, Ala., when the 2012 Chevrolet Camaro in which he was driving left the roadway, struck a tree and then flipped, according to TheTennessean.com.

“Nothing further is available as ALEA State Troopers continue to investigate,” trooper Michael Carswell told the paper, which is part of USA TODAY Sports.

Jackson was currently serving as the quarterbacks coach at Tennessee State University and the school’s sports information department publicly confirmed the news.

The Seahawks also confirmed the news in a tweet in which the team said it was “stunned and heartbroken to learn of the tragic passing of legend Tarvaris Jackson. T-Jack earned the respect of the organization and teammates with his competitiveness, toughness and professionalism. Our deepest condolences go out to his family and friends.”

Tributes began pouring in on social media immediately for Jackson, who was Seattle’s starter in 2011 when he gutted out a pectoral muscle injury to play in all but one game, and then returned to serve as the backup for Russell Wilson from 2013-15.

“TJack… you will be missed. Praying for your family…Love you man,” tweeted Wilson.

Tweeted coach Pete Carroll: “Tarvaris Jackson was a beloved teammate, competitor, and Seahawk. He will be deeply missed. So heartbroken by the news of his passing and sending our condolences to his family and friends. We love you forever @7tjackson”

B.J. Daniels, who served as a third quarterback and receiver/special teamer with the Seahawks from 2014-15, tweeted: “Tarvaris Jackson was my mentor! He played the game with dignity and taught me how to use my MIND to manipulate the defense. When my family couldn’t make it to Seattle for holidays, it was TJACK who invited me to his house to celebrate with his family!”

Jackson played 59 games overall in an NFL career that spanned from 2007-15. He started 34 games, including 14 with Seattle in 2011, Carroll’s second season as coach of the Seahawks.

Seattle signed Jackson in July, 2011 to a two-year contract to compete with Charlie Whitehurst as the successor to Matt Hasselbeck, who the team had decided not to re-sign.

Jackson, who had previously started 20 games for Minnesota from 2006-10, won the job and started 14 games that season, going 7-7 in a season in which the team went 7-9. He suffered a pectoral muscle injury in a contest against the Giants on Oct. 9 and after missing one game– a 6-3 loss at Cleveland – played with the injury the rest of the season, taking over in relief of Whitehurst in Seattle’s next game and then starting the rest of the season.

Seattle went on to win five of its last eight games that season with Jackson as the starter during a stretch when the Legion of Boom defense began to mature, a stretch that many around the team have long pointed to as key in the rise of a group that would go on to win the Super Bowl two years later.

The Seahawks, though, then signed Matt Flynn and drafted Wilson following that season and Jackson was traded in August to Buffalo.

He never played for the Bills, and the following year was cut in June by Buffalo and quickly re-signed by the Seahawks to serve as the backup to Wilson, a move met with great enthusiasm in the locker room.

“We thought of Tarvaris as a tremendously tough football player and competitive kid that battled for us,” Carroll said when the team brought Jackson back in 2013. “We’re a little better than we were in those days so we bring him back with the thought that he’ll make this a very competitive situation.”

“He embodies everything that our team is,” left tackle Russell Okung once said.

Jackson never started another game but served as the backup for Wilson for the next three seasons, signing one-year contracts to return in both 2014 and 2015.

Jackson got to play the final series of Seattle’s 43-8 Super Bowl win over Denver in 2014, a season in which he appeared in three games, completing 10-13 passes and throwing a touchdown in a September blowout of Jacksonville.

He returned to play the 2014 and 2015 seasons, appearing in one game in 2014 and four games in 2015.

In the 2014 season he earned a reputation as something of a good-luck charm for coin flips as Seattle memorably won tosses to get the ball first and win overtime games against Denver in the regular season and then against Green Bay in the NFC conference title game, a win that propelled the Seahawks to their third Super Bowl.

Each time, Jackson was sent out to handle the duties so Wilson could concentrate on talking to coaches about plans for overtime. Each time, Jackson watched as opponents made the call, with the coin instead going in Seattle’s favor.

“That guy, I don’t want to break his luck, but I mean, that guy is something else, man,” Wilson said after the NFC title game win over Green Bay.

The Seahawks decided to go in a different direction with their backup quarterbacking spot in 2016, signing undrafted rookie free agent Trevone Boykin.

Jackson had hoped to continue to keep playing.

But an incident in June, 2016 when he was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly puling a gun on his wide, Jackson later said, effectively ended his career.

The charges were later dropped. But Jackson told the St. Paul Pioneer Press in 2018 that he felt no team was willing to sign him after the charge.

“It hurt me a whole lot,’’ Jackson said then. “It’s no doubt I would have got a call (from an NFL team) to at least get a chance to go compete for a backup job, but it didn’t happen because of that. Once they put my name up, of course that’s going to come up and (teams said), ‘We don’t want to deal with it.’”

Jackson then began pursuing a coaching career and working as a coach at the high school level in 2016 and 217 before becoming a quality control and quarterbacks coach in 2018 at his alma mater, Alabama State,, and then moving to Tennessee State in 2019 as offensive analyst and quarterbacks coach. Jackson received a degree in psychology from Troy State in 2014.

Jackson is survived by his wife, Lakitta, and three children, Tarvaris, Takayla and Tyson.