Jackson State’s T.C. Taylor, Tomekia Reed criticize portrayal of Jackson in ‘60 Minutes’

(AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis) & (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
(AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis) & (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)(AP)
Published: Sep. 19, 2023 at 1:28 PM CDT
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JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - Jackson State women’s basketball head coach Tomekia Reed and football head coach T.C. Taylor have come to the defense of the City of Jackson.

Former JSU football head coach Deion Sanders was profiled in the latest episode of CBS’s “60 Minutes,” which aired Sunday. Sanders is now the head football coach at the University of Colorado Boulder.

In that profile, Reed stated that the portrayal of the capital city was “horrible” and that 60 Minutes “should be ashamed of yourselves.” She said this in reference to a home in Jackson that was shown during the profile, a home, Reed said, that was “the worst house you can find in America.”

“I’m not even sure if that abandoned house you showed is even in Jackson,” she continued.

Reed, a Jackson native, has been the head coach of the Lady Tigers since 2018.

“They showed very nice locations in Boulder and showed the worst they could find in Jackson. We have so much more to show that wouldn’t have hurt to take time to spotlight,” the head coach wrote in a later tweet.

On Tuesday, JSU football head coach T.C. Taylor, a Jackson State alumni and McComb native, also came to the defense of the city during his weekly media availability.

“It gave a bad look on Jackson, I thought,” he said. “Jackson has plenty of bright spots. There’s some good things going on in the city with this program and Jackson State in itself. When you see things like that and how they portrayed it, you know, they’re the media, so they control the narrative. But if you’re from here, born and raised here, you know what the city of Jackson is all about and the state of Mississippi.”

No comments have been made by “60 Minutes.”

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