The Denver Broncos waived safety Kareem Jackson on Monday, a Christmas transaction that took Alabama’s longest tenured alumnus off an NFL roster.
The Broncos faced a Monday deadline to restore Jackson to their 53-player active roster. Denver had received a roster exemption for Jackson last week as he practiced for the first time after serving a four-game suspension imposed by the NFL.
The Broncos did not return Jackson to the roster for Sunday night’s 26-24 loss to the New England Patriots, and the roster exemption ran out at 3 p.m. CST Monday.
Jackson had started the eight games for which he was available this season. But Jackson has had to sit out six games because of NFL suspensions.
A first-round draft choice from Alabama’s 2009 BCS national-championship team, Jackson is in his 14th NFL season. Among Crimson Tide alumni, only Chris Mohr, Howard Cross and Cornelius Bennett have played in more NFL regular-season games than Jackson’s 201 and only Bennett has started more games than Jackson’s 193.
But in a letter sent to Jackson notifying him of his suspension, Jon Runyan, the NFL’s vice president of football operations, asserted Jackson had violated Rule 12, Section 2, Article 10 (a) of the NFL rulebook, which states: “It is a foul if a player lowers his head and makes forcible contact with his helmet against an opponent.”
Jackson appealed the suspension, but the NFL’s decision was upheld – a different outcome from Jackson’s appeal of his first suspension of the 2023 season.
Jackson appealed the suspension to the hearing officers jointly appointed and compensated by the NFL and NFL Players Association to decide appeals of on-field player discipline, and Derrick Brooks reduced the suspension to two games
Jackson was fined by the NFL four times for unnecessary roughness in the first six weeks of the 2023 season. Twice the fines stemmed from penalties called on the field.
The NFL fined Jackson $14,819 in Week 1, $19,669 in Week 2, $11,473 in Week 3 and $43,709 in Week 6.
In Denver’s 35-33 loss to Washington on Sept. 17, Jackson was penalized and ejected for a hit on Commanders tight end Logan Thomas on a touchdown reception with 1:47 left in the first half.
