We're all from somewhere. Our home, our heritage, it shapes us, for better or for worse, and no matter where life takes us, that tether holds; sometimes faint, sometimes like a siren, but always present.
The NFL invites players to celebrate that heritage with flags on the back of their helmets, representing countries where they were born, if other than America, or have ancestors tracing back two generations. They are a reminder that players come from all around the world, with threads of stories that circle the globe. And as the NFL continues to grow its brand in new countries, sharing the sport with the world, it's crucial to remember that with each new country ventured, the world is also sharing itself with us. It's vital we listen.
The Carolina Panthers boast 11 players who display their history with the Heritage Helmet stickers. These are their stories.
It's not where you start, but where you finish. It's a principle that defines sports and pushes athletes to constantly search for their best. You can start as an undrafted player and still become a Super Bowl MVP. A team can stumble through the first part of a season, then finish with a winning record. They can sneak into the playoffs as the last wild card team, then still go all the way.
It's not where you start, but where you finish. It's also a motto for life.
That's why Mike Jackson proudly wears the German flag on the back of his helmet as part of the Heritage Helmet project. He knows he's unique amongst his teammates because he started in a much different spot than he is in now—literally.
"I was born (in Frankfurt, Germany)," Jackson shares, the son of a mom who was in the military stationed in Frankfurt at the time, and a dad who was playing football for NFL Europe.
"That was my first language. And so for me it's kind of cool to be born in a different country but raised in Alabama. There's not many."
He's right, there aren't many at all. On the Panthers alone, Jackson is one of only two players who wear the Heritage Helmet sticker as a military kid. The other is Patrick Jones II, but the linebacker continued to live in Japan until he was a teenager.
Jackson moved to the States as a toddler; his ability to speak German quickly petered out, and his connection to his first home came primarily through stories from his mom.
"She loved it over there," Jackson admits. "She always talked about wanting to move back, but once we left there, we went to Seattle, and then after that, we moved back to Alabama, so she was just kind of— like she loves it over there, she came to the game when we were out there."
The game was Jackson's next significant connection to his birthplace. When the Panthers played in Munich, Germany, last season as part of the NFL's international slate, Jackson was able to return, for the first time in over two decades, to the country that helped raise him for the first couple of years of his life.
"I went to a big church in downtown Munich," he recalls. "So, I did that, did some shopping, so it was just kind of cool to be in the city, to kind of just—a big what if."
The "what-if" gave the starting corner a chance, for the first time in his life, to really imagine how things could have been different if his family had stayed in Germany. To consider what he might be doing now if his path had circled its start instead of crossing an ocean.
"It was kind of like a big what if, like what if I always stayed over there," Jackson wonders aloud. "I feel like I would have played soccer because when I was younger, I played soccer, so that's kind of what my thought process was like. Just imagine if I stayed over here, I probably wouldn't be playing American football."
