MINNEAPOLIS — As the community awaits answers in the early Saturday morning crash that killed Minnesota Vikings rookie cornerback Khyree Jackson and 2 others in Maryland, players are trying to process the sudden loss.
The 24-year-old remained on the Vikings Roster Monday. Although he was a rookie, players got to know him at Organized Team Activities earlier in the offseason.
"I'm just looking forward to making my impact out here," Jackson said in an online video posted in late April. "I'm just looking forward to, you know, making Vikings Nation proud."
Sports psychologist Dr. T.M. Mosley understands it may be hard to hear his voice or see his face. Many things can trigger grief, she says.
"It often happens in ways that we sometimes can't anticipate," Mosley said. "It becomes more real the closer you get to returning to the field or returning to work so to speak, which is why in thinking about grief it really does ebb and flow. There are going to be days that are going to be really difficult and hard to manage and we don't know what that timeline is going to look like."
Based in Minneapolis, Mosley is founder of the Playbook and has provided support for all major sports leagues, including the NFL.
"What I love about sports is we have this baked-in belongingness because we are a team, we're a cohesive unit," she said. "So when there is a significant loss of some sort, it's felt across an entire organization."
She says that includes everyone from office workers to athletes and medics.
The Vikings start the 2024 Training Camp in just a couple of weeks.
"We're both grieving and mourning the loss and preparing for an extremely high performance season, and so having to manage both of those things and not choosing one or the other, which the Vikings have been masterful with doing that over the years unfortunately with other crises and trauma," Mosley said.
Mosley says if she were consulting for the Vikings right now, she would offer three areas of advice. First, to provide the opportunity for professional support such as individual and group counseling sessions. Secondly, she says players, coaches and staff members would benefit from reaching out to one another to check-in, whether by email, text or voice memo. Finally, she says the sports team or community could help out with things like providing meals to take some stress off the plate.
"So, how do we come in and co-create an environment that gives people the tools and resources they need to take it one day at a time, to take care of themselves while also recognizing there is no timeline for grief, but there are some things we can do to put them in the ecosystem so people feel supported and they feel cared for," Mosley said. "Grief has this way of shattering us and also shaping us."
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