Why Fred Jackson Deserves to Be on the Bills Wall of Fame
The Buffalo Bills Wall of Fame was created in 1980 to celebrate former players, coaches, and administrators who played essential roles in the team’s history. 31 inductees have been enshrined in the Wall of Fame since its inception. However, no one has been inducted since 1962 AFL MVP Cookie Gilchrist received the honor in 2017. With a new stadium being prepped for the 2026 season, why not add more Bills legends' names to the Wall of Fame? This edition will show why Fred Jackson deserves to be on the Wall of Fame.
In 2007, the Bills drafted two running backs to replace Willis McGahee, who rushed for over 70 yards per game every season in Buffalo. The first pick was Marshawn Lynch, the eighth-overall pick who became much more well-known in Seattle. Buffalo also drafted Dwayne Wright in the fourth round, who only played a single season in the league. Neither of those running backs is known as a Bills great, but a first-year running back from that season is. Jackson went undrafted out of Coe College, playing for the National Indoor Football League for two seasons and NFL Europe for one year. He played on the practice squad for the entirety of 2006 and finally got his chance to play in 2007, playing in eight games and starting in one, becoming the first Division III running back to start a game since 2000.
Jackson quickly became a fan favorite in Buffalo, heralded for his tough, between-the-tackles running as well as his pass-blocking ability. Though he never reached a Pro Bowl, he was a very consistent player and, perhaps even more importantly, a great leader. He was named a team captain in 2014 and had always been a respected member of the locker room. The Fort Worth, Texas, native was also a pillar of the Buffalo community. In 2015, he received the Jefferson Award Foundation’s award for Outstanding Public Service in Professional Sports. He was a Walter Payton Man of the Year Award nominee due to his participation in the Food Bank of Western New York, the Believe campaign for breast cancer awareness, and the NFL Play 60 program among others.
All of his philanthropy is a good reason for him to grace the Wall of Fame, but he’s also accumulated enough on the all-time Bills statistical leaderboard to put him up there as well. He’s third in team history for rushing yards and fifth for rushing touchdowns. He’s also gone on the record saying it’d be a “tremendous honor to be on the Wall of Fame.” I don’t know if I did enough to earn that honor, but I would love that,” said Jackson in a 2018 interview with the Athletic’s Matthew Fairburn. “It would be great to have my name up on the wall with a lot of the great Bills players of the past. So I don’t know that it will happen, but it would be the icing on the cake. You come out here and get to walk into that stadium and look up to see all those names on the wall, one of the things you do when you’re playing is say, I hope to be up there some day. I definitely tried to cement my legacy in Buffalo, and I hope I did enough to do so.”
