Burkhead and Abdullah to Honor Team Jack

By Brent Apperson

November 30, 2017

Week 13 of the NFL kicks off the “My Cause, My Cleats” campaign. During the games this week, participating players wear cleats designed around a cause that is important to them. For the second year in a row, Rex Burkhead, now a New England Patriot, will be wearing cleats to show his support for the Team Jack Foundation and to bring national awareness to pediatric brain cancer.

On Rex’s left foot is Jack’s picture from 6-years ago. This 6-year-old boy and his favorite University of Nebraska running back spent a day together in the Fall of 2011. They ate lunch, toured the football facility, and even raced on the field. As a 6-year-old little boy, Jack always looked up to Rex, and as seen on the cleats, Jack will still be “looking up” to him this Sunday.

On Rex’s right foot, is a picture of now 12-year-old Jack today. After six years, Rex still wears the red “Team Jack Pray” bracelet that Jack gave him the first time they met, as he plays for the New England Patriots. Today, Rex sits on the Board of Directors of the Team Jack Foundation and plans an annual Team Jack Trifecta event in his hometown of Plano, TX raising money and awareness for pediatric brain cancer. Last year, the inaugural Tri-fecta raised over $40,000 for the Foundation.

The cleats were designed by Joe V Designs in Ludlow, Massachusetts. The design inspiration came from the video of little Jack, running the 69-yard touchdown in the 2013 Husker spring game.

“My team and I hope that the cleats bring much needed awareness for the disease. It was all about giving back and we could not be happier to be part of it,” said Joe Ventura.

The cleats were officially “unboxed” on Monday, November 27, but Jack was able to see the cleats before anyone else. Joe and his team sent the cleats to Jack to autograph as a surprise for Rex.

“I thought they were awesome!” says Jack Hoffman.

Burkhead’s cleats will be featured on the NFL auction site (www.nflauction.nfl.com) where all proceeds will benefit the Team Jack Foundation.

In addition, long-time Team Jack supporter and former Husker, Detroit Lion’s Ameer Abdullah will also be representing Team Jack for the “My Cause, My Cleats” campaign. Abdullah released the design of his cleats on Instagram Tuesday. From Ameer Abdullah’s Instagram:

“Honored to represent the @teamjackfoundation this weekend for #mycausemycleats Pediatric Brain Cancer is the number 1 child killing cancer in America. I stand with many others in the fight against this disease. This weekend is for my little guardian angel DJ, I live each day with the same smile I was so blessed to see grace your face. #RIPDJ #WROH”

Donovan James Miles Jr., “DJ” was a few months shy of 2 years old when he came to a Huskers practice during the 2012 season with his grandfather, Steve Reddick. D.J. and formed an unforgettable bond with Abdullah. When meeting Abdullah, DJ had already undergone surgery and chemotherapy. DJ’s prognosis was not good, and he passed from brain cancer in September 2014. But, Abdullah continues to honor DJ’s memory year after year. In addition, he continues to support the Team Jack Foundation and their mission to fight a cure and better treatments for the disease.

Tune in on Sunday as the New England Patriots take on the Buffalo Bills and the Detroit Lions take on the Baltimore Ravens in week 13 of the NFL to see Burkhead and Abdullah sport their customized Team Jack Foundation cleats and bring national awareness to pediatric brain cancer.

Nobody expected Riley Reiff to be this big an upgrade

We knew he’d be better, but to this extent?

By Christopher Gates

November 29, 2017

It’s our weekly theme post day with the rest of our SB Nation football brethren, and this week’s theme is something that we didn’t expect from our favorite team. While there are a lot of things that have been surprising about this team in 2017, I think there’s one particular player that stands out in that regard.

Going into the 2017 offseason, everyone knew that the Minnesota Vikings needed to do something. . .anything. . .to fix the offensive line. While there were some big names available in free agency, such as Andrew Whitworth and Ricky Wagner, Rick Spielman and company set their sights on former Detroit Lions’ offensive tackle Riley Reiff, signing him to a huge five-year contract.

And the crowd went mild.

Reiff wasn’t a “big” name. Heck, in his last year in Detroit he didn’t even play left tackle. He had been displaced to the right side by rookie Taylor Decker, and the Lions thought it was in their best interests to turn him loose. The Vikings signed him, and announced that he would be their starting left tackle. After a season where the combination of Matt Kalil, T.J. Clemmings, and Jake Long offered just slightly more resistance to opposing defenders than wet tissue paper, I think that people expected Reiff to be an upgrade at the left tackle spot. But I’m relatively certain that nobody expect the upgrade to be this huge.

We are through eleven games of the 2017 regular season, and Reiff has still not been credited as having given up a quarterback sack. The entire offensive line, for the season, has allowed twelve, but Reiff’s protection of Case Keenum’s blindside has been a huge part of why this offensive line is performing at a level far beyond what we could have expected after last season’s debacle.

Reiff has also made his presence felt in the run game, too, bolstering a rushing attack that was the worst in the NFL in 2016. Even with the absence of star rookie Dalvin Cook, the Vikings’ run offense hasn’t missed a beat, and the performance of Latavius Murray and Jerick McKinnon thus far can be attributed to Reiff and the rest of the offensive line.

Reiff is clearly one of the leaders on this team, and he’s even more clearly the leader of this offensive line. As I said earlier, I know that most of us were expecting Reiff to be an improvement over what the team had at left tackle last season, if only because it would have been damn near impossible not to be. But I think I can quite safely say that he has exceeded everyone’s expectations, and is as much of a reason as anyone else for this team currently being at 9-2 and fighting for home field advantage in the NFC playoffs.

Phil Dawson takes NFC special teams player of the week

By Josh Alper

November 29, 2017

The Cardinals wouldn’t have had a chance to win last Sunday’s game against the Jaguars in regulation if not for a curious coaching decision by Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone, but they still needed someone to make good on that opportunity.

Enter kicker Phil Dawson. After a couple of completions by Blaine Gabbert, Dawson trotted on the field for a 57-yard field goal try on the final play of the fourth quarter.

Dawson knocked it home, giving the Cardinals a 27-24 win and giving himself a new career-long field goal. It was Dawson’s fourth field goal of the day and that performance was enough for the league to name him the NFC’s special teams player of the week.

Dawson has now won weekly special teams honors with three different teams over the course of a career that began as a member of the rebooted Browns in 1999.