On Saturday, following Carolina’s 10-6 loss to the Philadelphia Waterdogs, veteran midfielder Kyle Jackson shared a powerful and emotional message to the media.

Jackson, the lone player on the Chaos with Indigenous heritage, was asked about Indigenous Heritage Weekend in Minnesota and what it meant to him.

“It’s huge, and the reality is, I don’t get too emotional too often,” Jackson said with a chuckle. “They say that this game is a medicine game, and it’s not about winning and losing – although that's great in the grand scheme of it all.”

Before the game, Jackson’s family lost his wife’s grandfather and his kids’ “Super Papa,” leaving extra weight on the 30-year-old’s shoulders in Minneapolis.

“But this morning, I’d be remiss to not acknowledge the fact that my wife and her family lost their grandfather today. My kids lost their Super Papa,” Jackson continued, bringing a powerful silence to the room. “So as much as you know it’s a medicine game to me, I’ll sacrifice losing and winning in the grand scheme like this to be with some pretty awesome people.”

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Chaos head coach and general manager Andy Towers consoled Jackson with his arm wrapped around the midfielder. 

“I don’t think I’ve cried in 20-plus years,” Jackson said. “Right now, it’s hard to sit around and go play a game when I know that a lot of people are grieving back home. But it was ironic on the day that it’s a medicine game that he passed.”

Jackson, a member of the Turtle clan, later passed along a message about the sport of lacrosse as a whole. 

“I think that if I could just say one thing it’s that this is a sport that you ultimately want to be a competitor and you want to win and you want to lose, and that’s the ultimate goal,” Jackson told the room. “But if along the way, you can meet some great people and Coach Towers and everybody else in that locker room, that’s what this is all about. 

“The competitor in me is pissed off today that we lost, yes, but there was a bigger storyline within all of this today for me, and I’m just appreciative that everybody came out to support and enjoy the game that this is of lacrosse.” 

Jackson, who’s in his fourth season with the Chaos, embodied the message and reiterated that Saturday’s game was more than about losing and winning. 

“This was much more than just that today for me,” Jackson echoed before the press conference ended.