DOVER, Del. — Years before DeSean Jackson and Michael Vick thrilled Eagles fans with deep-threat touchdown passes and decades before they became head coaches set to lead their teams from historically Black colleges into a showcase game on national television at an NFL stadium, the future friends first met at a Los Angeles shopping mall.

Jackson was in about the ninth grade when the star-struck teen first saw Vick, already a bright star with the Atlanta Falcons. He had his hefty entourage in tow when Jackson summoned the nerve at the Beverly Center to try and say hello.

“I said like, ‘What’s up?’ or something like that,” Jackson said with a laugh. “But you know, I’m looking at him like, Oh my God!"

Jackson grew from looking up to Vick to sharing a huddle with him in Philadelphia. The two

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