Ja’Quinden Jackson’s legendary Duncanville career unofficially began with a dropped pass.

It was the second round of the 2017 Texas high school football playoffs, and Duncanville trailed Euless Trinity 28-27. Jackson, a sophomore, had split time at quarterback that year with senior Trazon Connley. But with the game on the line, Jackson lined up at wide receiver. Connley launched a deep ball to Jackson, who was wide open on a post route. The ball dropped right into his waiting arms.

It should have been his “I’ve arrived” moment. Instead, Jackson dropped it, and Duncanville lost by one point.

His wide receiver coach, Leon Paul, consoled him as Trinity players celebrated. Jackson looked up at him, eyes welling with tears.

“Coach Paul, on everything I love, I’ll never lose another high school game,” Jackson promised.

This Thursday, Jackson returns to AT&T Stadium for the East-West Shrine Bowl, a 23-year-old trying to punch his NFL ticket on the same stage where he first gained fame as a teenager. His performances at Jerry World turned Duncanville into the Texas high school football juggernaut it is today. But before the back-to-back state championships, there was a sophomore who, after the loss, refused to leave his room for two weeks.

“I was disappointed,” Jackson remembers. “I was devastated. But most of all... I was embarrassed.”

The dropped pass became his origin story. After that game, Jackson vowed to never feel like that again. He led Duncanville to a combined 28-1 record over the next two seasons, bringing the program its first state championship appearances under coach Reginald Samples.

“Duncanville would’ve been Duncanville eventually because of Coach Samples,” Paul said. “But it wouldn’t have been Duncanville as quickly if it wasn’t for Ja’Quinden Jackson.”

Jackson left Duncanville as a four-star quarterback, but he now plays running back for the West team in the Shrine Bowl after switching positions in college to see the field faster. He always considered himself more of an athlete than a quarterback. He didn’t even play full-time quarterback until high school, having switched between receiver, running back, and quarterback. In fact, Jackson didn’t want to play quarterback full-time at Duncanville. He asked Samples to let him play on both sides of the ball, but Samples insisted that the best athlete on the team would have the ball on every play. Jackson quickly learned that when Samples spoke, he meant it.

“He’s going to yell at you,” Jackson said. “He’s going to talk crazy to you. You can’t do anything but suck it up.”

Jackson had his breakout moment in the 2018 state semifinals when he led Duncanville to a 44-35 win over then-No. 1 Allen. His 40-yard touchdown on a 4th-and-1 quarterback keeper with three minutes remaining sealed the win. While Samples had the foresight to move Jackson to full-time quarterback, he refused to take credit for Jackson’s success.

“It wasn’t a lot of great coaching; we had a really good player,” Samples said. “It was just our job to get the ball to him in the right situations.”

Sometimes, Jackson had to remind them, like in the state championship the following week against North Shore.

With Duncanville trailing 35-30 and just over a minute left in the fourth quarter, Jackson was face-masked, spinning his helmet around. The penalty gave Duncanville a first-and-goal with 1:06 left. But Jackson was furious. Offensive coordinator Eric Mims called a halfback run play, but when Paul signaled to Jackson, he refused it.

“No,” Jackson replied. “Give me the – – ball!”

Paul radioed up to Mims, “Coach, JJ wants the – – ball.”

Duncanville drew up a play they hadn’t used all season, “Quarterback Box.” Jackson charged up the middle, extended the ball, and gained five crucial yards. Duncanville would win by one point, thanks to Jackson’s refusal to back down.

“He wanted the ball,” Samples said. “He wanted to make the big play. And even though everyone knew he was going to get it, he made it in spite of that.”

But the game is remembered for North Shore’s game-winning 55-yard Hail Mary. Quarterback Dematrius Davis threw a pass to A.J. Carter on the final play to hand Duncanville its only loss of Jackson’s high school career.

Despite the Hail Mary defeat, Jackson was at the peak of his high school powers, named Unanimous District MVP and a member of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Super Team. But that wasn’t enough. He made another promise to Paul: not only would he never lose again, but he’d never let it be that close again.

That offseason, Paul challenged Jackson to run track and improve his speed, turning his 30-yard runs into 75-yard touchdowns. The problem? Jackson wasn’t fast enough to run varsity track. So, he joined the JV team.

“This All-American quarterback humbled himself to say, ‘Even though I played varsity football at the highest stage in America, I’ll run JV so I can still compete,’” Paul said.

The result? Duncanville’s GOAT JV 4x100 relay team. Jackson, current Detroit Lions defensive back Ennis Rakestraw Jr., SMU receiver Roderick Daniels Jr., and Tulsa linebacker Chris Thompson Jr. had never competed in JV anything. But they trusted Paul that it would make them better football players.

Duncanville dominated in Jackson’s senior year of 2019, winning 14 games by an average margin of 36.86 points. It was supposed to be the revenge tour—the year Jackson would lead Duncanville to its first state title. But then came the injury. Jackson tore his ACL, MCL, and PCL in a blowout win over Rockwall. His career at Duncanville ended a game too early, and he watched the following week from the sidelines as Duncanville fell to North Shore again.

Jackson had faced setbacks before, but this was different. With his rehab limiting his training, he sank into depression, watching his once-chiseled 6-3 frame drop from 220 pounds to below 200. He was headed to the University of Texas, but woke up at 3 a.m. crying.

This began a five-year college journey that took Jackson through three programs and a position switch. Today, Jackson is a running back for Arkansas with 15 touchdowns, on the brink of an NFL career. Reflecting on his journey, Jackson says that in the beginning, it was all about proving something to himself. But as football took him further than any man in his family had reached, it became about providing for his family.

“The person in front of me is in the way of getting my momma that house she wants, or my sister that car,” Jackson said.

The Ja’Quinden Jackson competing in the East-West Shrine Bowl knows now that loss is inevitable, not something that can be willed away. His story isn’t the neat narrative of dropping a pass and never losing again. It’s about picking yourself up after each failure—whether it’s the dropped pass, the Hail Mary loss, or the torn ligaments—and finding the strength to keep going, even when it’s no longer for yourself.

“He understands that success isn’t free,” Paul said. “Success costs, and a lot of people don’t want to pay the cost because the cost comes with adversity.”