Mississippi Today
It did not take long for Hall of Famer Patrick Willis to make an impression
Patrick Willis, the best linebacker I ever covered, made a lasting impression the first time I saw him. It was Oct. 18, 2003. He was an 18-year-old freshman at Ole Miss.
Willis was a lightly recruited linebacker from Tennessee who did not even receive an offer from his home state Volunteers. His other Division I offer was from Memphis. Indeed, I don’t think I had ever heard his name called until Ole Miss kicked off to Alabama to begin the game at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Alabama’s Ramzee Robinson, one of those legions of fleet-footed, sturdy Crimson Tide defensive backs we’ve seen through the years, gathered in the kickoff at his own 10-yard line. He probably thought he was just getting started when he reached the 17-yard line. He was wrong.
As I wrote that day, โโฆFreshman Patrick Willis hit him like a speeding pickup truck. Wham! Robinson went backwards. It was the first of many whams!โ
It set the tone for the day. Willis and his Rebel teammates played the first quarter as if they were flying, took a 24-0 lead and clocked Alabama 43-28. Afterward, David Cutcliffe, the Rebels coach said, โHitting like that can be contagious.โ
Now, I’m not going to sit here and write that I knew then that Patrick Willis was going to be a College Football Hall of Famer (inducted in 2019) or a Pro Football Hall of Famer (announced Thursday), but I did know I was watching someone special. It’s not often you see an Alabama runner, at full speed, slammed a couple yards backwards. Usually, it’s the other way around.
But Willis hit like that for four seasons at Ole Miss, the last three on losing football teams. He was anything but a loser. He was twice a first team All American, twice All-SEC. He led Ole Miss in tackles as a sophomore and led the SEC as a junior and senior. He won the Butkus and Lambert and Conerly trophies.
If you watched Ole Miss often during those four seasons, you saw him do what he did to Ramzee Robinson to backs from LSU, Auburn, Arkansas, Tennessee and anyone else the Rebels played. He really was the perfect linebacker: big, strong, fast, quick and remarkably instinctive.
Off the field, he was a thoughtful and respectful gentleman, even in the worst of times. And there were plenty of those his last two years under Ed Orgeron. I particularly remember when Jerious Norwood ran for 204 yards and four touchdowns in State‘s Egg Bowl victory over Ole Miss in Willis’s junior season. It probably won the Conerly Trophy for Norwood and lost it for Willis, who made 15 tackles and intercepted a pass that day. Willis gave credit where it was due, calling Norwood โthe best back I’ve faced.โ
Willis’ excellence and demeanor was all the more remarkable when you considered his childhood. He grew up in poverty, working in cotton fields to earn money to feed younger siblings. When his alcoholic father became abusive, he and his siblings moved in with Willis’ high school basketball coach. Nevertheless, Willis was All-State in football both as a running back and linebacker and also played basketball and baseball.
You may remember that Willis was considered a late first round or early second round draft choice following his senior season, but then blew up during postseason workouts, all-star games and the NFL combine. At 240 pounds, he ran a 4.38 40-yard dash on Ole Miss Senior Day. At the combine, his vertical leap was measured at 39 inches. He was the defensive MVP in the Senior Bowl. The San Francisco 49ers made him the 11th pick of the draft.
And, of course, he was the defensive Rookie of the Year in the NFL. As a rookie, he was coached by Pro Football Hall of Famer Mike Singletary, who said, โI’ve already coached two of the greatest linebackers, one who has already proven to be one of the greatest (Ray Lewis) and one who will be (Patrick Willis).โ
Willis a first team All-Pro six times in an eight-year NFL career and played in seven Pro Bowls. His retirement announcement in 2015, at the age of 30, was stunning. He left a $22 million contract on the table. When you hit as hard as Willis hit, there are aches and pains that come with it. Like running back greats Jim Brown, who retired at 29, and Barry Sanders, who retired at 30, Willis retired with his health intact. He earned nearly $50 million as a pro. How much money does one guy need?
He has his health, plenty of money and a spot in Canton, Ohio, as one of the greatest linebackers to ever play the game.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1875
Nov. 2, 1875
The first Mississippi Plan, which included violence against Black Americans to keep them from voting, resulted in huge victories for white Democrats across the state.
A year earlier, the Republican Party had carried a majority of the votes, and many Black Mississippians had been elected to office. In the wake of those victories, white leagues arose to challenge Republican rule and began to use widespread violence and fraud to recapture control of the state.
Over several days in September 1875, about 50 Black Mississippians were killed along with white supporters, including a school teacher who worked with the Black community in Clinton.
The governor asked President Ulysses Grant to intervene, but he decided against intervening, and the violence and fraud continued. Other Southern states soon copied the Mississippi plan.
John R. Lynch, the last Black congressman for Mississippi until the 1986 election of Mike Espy, wrote: โIt was a well-known fact that in 1875 nearly every Democratic club in the State was converted into an armed military company.โ
A federal grand jury concluded: โFraud, intimidation, and violence perpetrated at the last election is without a parallel in the annals of history.โ
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Mississippi Todayโs NewsMatch Campaign is Here: Support Journalism that Strengthens Mississippi
High-quality journalism like ours depends on reader support; without it, we simply couldn’t exist. That’s why we’re proud to join the NewsMatch movement, a national initiative aimed at raising $50 million for nonprofit newsrooms that serve communities like ours here in Mississippi, where access to reliable information has often been limited.
In a time when trusted journalists and media sources are disappearing, we believe the stakes couldn’t be higher. Without on-the-ground, trustworthy reporting, civic engagement suffers, accountability falters and corruption often goes unaddressed. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Here at Mississippi Today we act as watchdogs, holding those in power accountable, and as storytellers, giving a platform to voices that have been ignored for too long. And we’re committed to keeping our stories free for everyone because information should be accessible when it’s needed most.
Why NewsMatch and Why Now?
This year’s NewsMatch campaign runs from November 1 through December 31, giving us a special opportunity to make each dollar you give go even further. Through matching funds provided by local foundations like the Maddox Foundation, and national funders like the MacArthur Foundation, the Rural Partner Fund and the Hewlett Foundation, your gift will be matched dollar for dollar up to $1,000. Plus, if 100 new donors join us, we’ll unlock an additional $2,000 in funding, bringing us even closer to our goal. Boiled down: your donation goes four times as far.
Every dollar raised strengthens our ability to serve you with fact-based journalism on issues that impact your everyday lifeโwhether it’s covering local election issues or reporting on decisions affecting schools, safety and economic growth in Mississippi. Your support makes it possible for us to stay rooted in the community, offering nuanced perspectives that help Mississippians understand and engage with what’s happening around them.
Special Event: โFreedom of the Press: Southern Challenges, National Impactโ
As part of the campaign, we’re excited to host a special virtual event, โFreedom of the Press: Southern Challenges, National Impact.โ Join Deep South Today newsrooms Mississippi Today and Verite News, along with national experts on press freedom, for an in-depth discussion on the unique challenges facing journalists in the Deep South. This one-hour session will explore the critical role local newsrooms play in holding power accountable, highlighting recent restrictions on press freedom such as Louisiana’s โ25-foot law,โ which affects journalists’ ability to report vital news.
We’ll examine what’s at stake if local newsrooms lose press freedoms and will discuss how you, as members of the public, can help protect it. This event is open to Mississippi Today and Verite News members as a special thank-you for supporting local journalism and standing with us in this mission. Donate today to RSVP!
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Together, let’s ensure Mississippi has the robust, independent journalism it needs to thrive. Your support fuels our ability to expose the truth, elevate marginalized stories and build a more informed Mississippi.
Thank you for believing in the power of journalism to strengthen the communities we loveโnot only during election season but year-round. With your help, we’ll keep Mississippi informed, engaged and connected for generations to come.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Hinds County loses fight over control of jail
The Hinds County sheriff and Board of Supervisors have lost an appeal to prevent control of its jail by a court-appointed receiver and an injunction that orders the county to address unconstitutional conditions in the facility.
Two members from a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with decisions by U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves to appoint a receiver to oversee day-to-day jail operations and keep parts of a previous consent decree in place to fix constitutional violations, including a failure to protect detainees from harm.
However, the appeals court called the new injunction โoverly broadโ in one area and is asking Reeves to reevaluate the scope of the receivership.
The injunction retained provisions relating to sexual assault, but the appeals court found the provisions were tied to general risk of violence at the jail, rather than specific concerns about the Prison Rape Elimination Act. The court reversed those points of the injunction and remanded them to the district court so the provisions can be removed.
The court also found that the receiver should not have authority over budgeting and staff salaries for the Raymond Detention Center, which could be seen as โfederal intrusion into RDC’s budgetโ โ especially if the receivership has no end date.
Hinds County Board of Supervisors President Robert Graham was not immediately available for comment Friday. Sheriff Tyree Jones declined to comment because he has not yet read the entire court opinion.ย
In 2016, the Department of Justice sued Hinds County alleging a pattern or practice of unconstitutional conditions in four of its detention facilities. The county and DOJ entered a consent decree with stipulated changes to make for the jail system, which holds people facing trial.
โBut the decree did not resolve the dispute; to the contrary, a yearslong battle ensued in the district court as to whether and to what extent the County was complying with the consent decree,โ the appeals court wrote.
This prompted Reeves to hold the county in contempt of court twice in 2022.
The county argued it was doing its best to comply with the consent decree and spending millions to fix the jail. One of the solutions they offered was building a new jail, which is now under construction in Jackson.
The county had a chance to further prove itself during three weeks of hearings held in February 2022. Focuses included the death of seven detainees in 2021 from assaults and suicide and issues with staffing, contraband, old infrastructure and use of force.
Seeing partial compliance by the county, in April 2022 Reeves dismissed the consent decree and issued a new, shorter injunction focused on the jail and removed some provisions from the decree.
But Reeves didn’t see improvement from there. In July 2022, he ordered receivership and wrote that it was needed because of an ongoing risk of unconstitutional harm to jail detainees and staff.
The county pushed back against federal oversight and filed an appeal, arguing that there isn’t sufficient evidence to show that there are current and ongoing constitutional violations at the jail and that the county has acted with deliberate indifference.
Days before the appointed receiver was set to take control of the jail at the beginning of 2023, the 5th Circuit Court ordered a stay to halt that receiver’s work. The new injunction ordered by Reeves was also stayed, and a three-person jail monitoring team that had been in place for years also was ordered to stop work.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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