J.R. Reed wants to create own name in Georgia’s defense

Georgia defensive back J.R. Reed, who has been working with the first team in nickel situations, is the son of former Minnesota Vikings
receiver Jake Reed. — Georgia defensive back J.R. Reed, who has been working with the first team in nickel situations, is the son of former Minnesota Vikings receiver Jake Reed. Georgia defensive back J.R. Reed, who has been working with the first team in nickel situations, is the son of former Minnesota Vikings receiver Jake Reed.

By David Paschall August 22, 2017 3 min read

As the son of former Minnesota Vikings receiver Jake Reed, Georgia defensive back J.R. Reed spent his share of time as a toddler in an NFL training complex.

Not that he credits those experiences with where he is today.

“All I remember was running around, playing Pac-Man and chewing all the gum they had,” a smiling Reed said during a recent news conference in Athens.

Jake Reed spent 12 seasons in the NFL and 10 with the Vikings. He had four consecutive 1,000-yard seasons from 1994 to 1997, with NFL Hall of Famer Cris Carter also collecting 1,000-yard seasons in those same four years.

Carter and Reed were Vikings teammates from 1991 to 1999, when the franchise never experienced a losing record.

David Paschall

David Paschall has covered sports at the Chattanooga Times Free Press since 1999 and wrote for the Chattanooga Free Press in the nine years before that. David has mostly covered college athletics, with a focus on the University of Georgia from 2000 to 2019 and the University of Tennessee since 2020. He grew up in Chattanooga and is a graduate of the Baylor School and Auburn University. David has received multiple writing awards and has served as a Heisman Trophy voter since 2003. He has also worked in radio in Chattanooga and has been on the SEC Network's "Classic Rewind" series since 2014. David and his wife, Kelly, have three children — Conner, Emily and Spencer.

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.