Mark Jackson playing a waiting game as possible NFL future hangs in the balance

Not long into Wicklow’s make or break Tailteann Cup clash with Carlow last Saturday, they won a scoreable free about 40 metres out, which Mark Jackson trotted up to take.

It was only the Baltinglass goalkeeper’s second game back with his county having spent almost the first half of 2024 trying to secure a contract as a professional NFL kicker.

After going through a carefully choreographed pre-kick routine, the ball exploded off Jackson’s boot and sailed directly between the posts at Parnell Park. The ferocity and control of the strike told the tale of a player who has spent hundreds of hours honing his craft.

Shortly after taking part in the NFL Combine earlier this year, Jackson kicked a record 70-yard (64m) field goal while on camera in Florida, and last month attended a mini-camp organised by the Pittsburgh Steelers.

A contract offer similar to the one accepted by Down’s Charlie Smyth at the New Orleans Saints hasn’t yet materialised but Jackson remains hopeful.

“It’s a waiting game really,” he shrugged. “I don’t know what’s going to come. I’m technically an NFL free agent so I could get a call at any time. Teams have my tape and they can see what I’ve done over there. So it’s a waiting game to see if a team wants to bring me in. Who knows what’s going to happen?”

He is fully committed to Wicklow in the meantime and will be around for the duration of their Tailteann Cup campaign. That may have only days more to run as they have a tricky preliminary quarter-final assignment this Saturday against Leitrim in Longford.

But then as manager Oisín McConville acknowledged after watching his team come good with four late points in a row to defeat Carlow, securing third position in the table, they appear to have so much more left in the tank.

Jackson can expect to play a central role again this weekend, both from placed balls and in general play. His diagonal kick-pass from midfield down into the left corner forward position against Carlow, which resulted in Wicklow winning a free that Kevin Quinn converted, was even more sumptuous than the earlier free conversion.

Those two plays alone were proof that, even if his American dream comes to nought, he and Wicklow will still have benefited hugely.

“It has been mentally challenging at times, not knowing where you’re going to be,” he said, referencing the various trials and tests he has attended, while simultaneously remaining in close contact with McConville. “You could have to up sticks and move your whole life across the world.

“It is tough not knowing what the next week at any time is going to hold. But look, I had a brilliant experience, I’ve learned so much from it. And even if nothing is to come from it, it’s been an absolutely fantastic experience that not many people are ever able to get or have. So I’ve had that and I’ve learned a huge amount from it that I can bring back into Wicklow football.”

Jackson put so much work into kicking the oval ball over the last six months or so that he found it a challenge getting used to the round size five again.

“Thankfully there are a lot of transferable skills from one to the other,” he said. “It was the same at first when I was going from the round ball to the American football, it’s the same way now going back over again. I’ve learned a huge amount about myself and my kicking style and my technique and even the mental skills of it.

“I’ve worked with a guy from Wicklow doing mental skills training, Paul O’Riordan is his name, and over the last seven or eight months that has helped a huge amount too. I’m constantly trying to better myself as an athlete.”

Spare a thought for Shane Doyle, the man who kept goals for most of the league and championship in Jackson’s absence.

“Shane is just unlucky that he’s coming up against a generational goalkeeper,” said boss McConville. “In any other county in the country, Mark would be in goals, whether it’s Division One or Division Four, he’s just that good.”

Carlow, clearly forewarned, backed off all of Wicklow’s kick-outs last weekend, ensuring Jackson couldn’t boom one out over their press. Leitrim will probably do the same.

“That’s just the way the game has gone, especially in Division Three and Division Four, teams sit off a lot,” said Jackson. “We are used to playing that way. Ideally, if we can move the ball from one side to the other as quickly as possible, and if we can get runners forward, then I can be a spare man and help get us [get] through their defence.”