ATLANTA — One game stood between Jackson State and a supreme storybook ending. The writing—filled with four-months worth of lessons in the peaks and valleys of adversity in a dozen wins—had been plastered on the wall for the Tigers to reach perfection.
However, not all movies culminate with a picture-perfect, fairytale ending. Chasing “dominance” and perfection is not easy. Tom Brady and the 2007 Patriots couldn’t quite finish the job. A Jackson State-dominant crowd of fans inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium for Saturday’s Celebration Bowl, rocking their pom poms to the music of The Sonic Boom of the South, hoped Deion Sanders’s final Tigers team could have a different outcome. But it turned out they couldn’t, as Jackson State fell to North Carolina Central, 41–34, to send out Sanders on a disappointing note.
All the season, much like the ‘21 campaign, the lights had shined bright on the SWAC’s champion entering Saturday’s game despite the MEAC holding a 5–1 advantage in the annual postseason battle. But in overtime with the blazing lights on the nationally televised stage, it was the Tigers that needed one more incredible play to add another overtime to a thrilling contest. JSU quarterback Shedeur Sanders, who finished 30-for-40 for 349 yards and five touchdowns (one rushing), delivered a 19-yard strike to freshman sensation Travis Hunter in the left corner of the end zone, leading to JSU fans erupting with excitement at the end of regulation.
