Q: Can you tell us about the First and Goal program and why it's important to you?
Jackson:"It's important to the point that everyone should have a program like that, because the end product is that it's going to benefit kids. Whatever we can do as responsible adults to make sure today's kids get to where they need to be, which is the end result, which is responsible adults, we have to do whatever we can to make sure that happens."
Q: Do you have a prediction for today's game?
Jackson:"I'm not a fortune teller I'm just here to enjoy the day, to entertain some military veterans and enjoy what I used to do. I just hope everybody has a successful day. Of course, I'm going to pull for the Raiders. That is a given. I just hope everybody can enjoy the time out in the stadium. I hope it doesn't rain, and yes I am looking for a Raiders win."
Q: Have you gotten to see any of Latavius Murray?
Jackson:"Only what I've seen on the news. My time doesn't allow me to sit and watch sports. I'm just too busy. I'm just running. I haven't watched a complete football game since I left the sport. That's because I'm busy, not because I don't want to, but because I just have a busy schedule."
Q: How much has it pained you to see the Raiders go through the last dozen years without a winning year?
Jackson:"It doesn't pain me. You are going to have up years and you are going to have down years. It's just a phase that everybody goes through. It's part of the growing process. The Raiders will bounce back, so no, it doesn't pain me at all, but it's like this, if you're a real Raiders fan you stick with them through thick and thin, and right now it is a little thin. But you know, there are brighter days ahead."
Q: What are the positive things that you see happening with the Raiders right now? Do you look at the Derek Carr's and [Khalil] Mack's of the world and say that we have the pieces to build upon?
Jackson:"I look at is as this is a jigsaw puzzle with about 75 to 80 percent pieces complete, and over the next couple of years the Raiders will be back in that contending column." Q: Hey Bo, can you give your message to Raider Nation?
Jackson:"Be true. It's as simple as that, like I just said. If you're a true Raiders fan, you'll follow the boys through the thick and thin."
Q: What are you doing today specifically with your foundation?
Jackson:"Through my foundation I'm trying to, as the great Maya Angelou said, try to put a rainbow in somebody's cloud. That's what my foundation is all about. I'm all about trying to make underprivileged kids lives a little better, and today I'm out here representing my Give Me a Chance Foundation, which all the proceeds we raise benefit inner-city kids that go through my youth sports program back in Chicago. I'm kind of killing two birds with one stone while I'm here because Chris Doleman, ex Hall of Fame player, Chris Doleman and I joined a foundation group to create this "Dolemanity" program to where people can go online and donate to both foundations, and both foundations split those proceeds down the middle to do things with the kids, but the winner, someone will be randomly chosen from everybody that has donated, to spend a weekend with me at the Raiders weekend. The couple sitting behind me to my right, to your left, is the winning couple. They're from Tacoma, Wash. He's a retired Army general, and his wife, General Rowe, and also, the couple sitting behind me to my left is a couple that I met on the airplane a couple of years ago that I helped out. They're military vets and I haven't seen them in two years. I decided to find them and invite them out to the game also, so it's like I'm killing to birds with one stone, and I'm enjoying my time out here."
Q: We had talked last time about the big Bo Jackson weekend. It was going to benefit your charity. How did the weekend go, the golf outing and all that stuff?
Jackson:"The weekend went great with the exception of golf. We didn't play golf which was okay with the army general because he isn't that good of a golfer anyway. It was he and his wife's first time in the San Francisco area, as far as being there for a while. They had flown through because they are from Tacoma. Instead of going and playing golf and meeting at the golf course and getting all wet, I decided to get the driver to take them on a sightseeing tour around the San Francisco Bay Area and up around Napa Valley and they really enjoyed themselves. They really enjoyed themselves."
Q: And they got to spend all that time with you?
Jackson:"Since it was just them, I let them go on the sightseeing tour by themselves and we actually did dinner. We hung around the hotel. We hung around the bar in the hotel and did things, and then we got up on Sunday, had breakfast and came to the stadium."
Q: Do you know how many people entered the contest?
Jackson:"No, I don't. I would have to find out from my people that were actually running it, but I know that there were a lot of people."
Q: What were your thoughts on using social media to raise awareness for your foundation and for this contest?
Jackson:"That is a combination of my foundation and Chris Doleman, ex Hall of Famer, defensive lineman for the Minnesota Vikings. He has this thing that's called "Dolemanity," and what he does, he gets with other celebrities and they get together and come up with things just like my weekend and we go on and have people donate at least $10 to the cause with the hopes of having their name drawn at the end for some type of bigtime prize, and mine just happened to be to hang out and spent a weekend in the Bay Area for the 49ers, Raiders game which turned out great for everybody."
Q: Are you ever surprised at the reaction you get from Raiders fans when you come back?
Jackson:"No, because it's like home. Whenever you go home everybody is always glad to see you and you're always glad to see everybody else. I am just as comfortable being there in Oakland and with the fans there as I was when we were in Los Angeles, in El Segundo. Just like they say, once a Raider fan, always a Raider fan."
