Former NFL QB Tarvaris Jackson dies in car crash in Alabama

Former NFL quarterback Tarvaris Jackson died in a single-car crash in Alabama on Sunday night, a police spokesperson confirmed to USA TODAY Sports on Monday. He was 36.

Jackson was driving on a road a few miles south of Montgomery, Alabama, at around 8:50 p.m. Sunday when his 2012 Chevrolet Camaro left the road, hit a tree and flipped, according to Alabama Law Enforcement Agency trooper Michael Carswell. Jackson was transported to a local hospital and later pronounced dead.

“Nothing further is available as ALEA State Troopers continue to investigate,” Carswell said.

A second-round draft pick out of Football Championship Subdivision school Alabama State, Jackson played parts of nine seasons in the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings and Seattle Seahawks. (He also spent the 2012 season with the Buffalo Bills, but did not play.)

Jackson started 34 games over the course of his career, including 14 for the Seahawks in 2011, and threw for more than 7,200 yards with 39 touchdowns and 35 interceptions. The Montgomery native also won a Super Bowl ring as Russell Wilson’s backup in 2014.

“TJack ... you will be missed. Praying for your family...Love you man,” Wilson wrote on Twitter on Monday morning.

Jackson was released by the Seahawks in 2016. He was arrested in Florida later that year for allegedly pulling a gun on his wife, though the charges were later dropped.

Jackson then decided to retire from the NFL and move to coaching. He spent the 2018 season as a quality control assistant at his alma mater before joining Tennessee State as its quarterbacks coach in 2019.

“I am definitely comfortable with the NFL career I had, but, of course, there are things you wish you could have back to do again that you would do differently,” Jackson told The Tennessean last summer. “A lot of the things I wish that I could have back, I try to teach these guys so that they won’t go through the same thing.”

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