New York Yankees draft pick Core Jackson admitted to performing an antisemitic act in college.
Jackson, 21, drew a swastika on the dorm room door of a Jewish student when he was a 17-year-old freshman at the University of Nebraska in October 2021.
According to The Athletic, Jackson told the Yankees about the incident before the 2024 MLB Draft, where he went undrafted.
The Yankees selected Jackson in the fifth round of the 2025 MLB Draft last month.
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Jackson said that he was “blackout drunk” when he drew the symbol and had no recollection of the incident or why he did it.
The baseball prospect called the drawing a “really stupid mistake” and insisted he is no longer “the person he was when it all happened.”
“I think it’s important that it is part of my story,” Jackson told The Athletic. “I have this platform now that God has given me, and I can share my story about his forgiveness.”
Jackson said he wanted to apologize personally to the student whose door he had vandalized, but that campus police told him to not contact the individual.
“I felt like the worst person in the world,” he said. “I don’t want there to be any excuses for my actions.”
Yankees amateur scouting director Damon Oppenheimer defended the team’s decision to draft Jackson, telling The Athletic the franchise did the most “due diligence” he’s seen in his 23 years on the job.
As for telling prospective teams about his actions before being drafted, Jackson said it was an “obvious” part of the process.
“It wasn’t easy,” Jackson said. “But it was part of growing up and understanding to take ownership of my actions.”
The choice to draft Jackson was also cleared by Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner.
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In addition to multiple conversations with Jackson himself, the Yankees organization also repeatedly discussed the decision with “multiple high-ranking Jewish members of the club, including team president Randy Levine.”
Levine, 70, is reported to have supported the decision to draft Jackson.
Jackson played his freshman season at the University of Nebraska, but left the school the following summer. He said he was in “a dark place” and was not “growing in my faith or getting better at baseball.”
The shortstop played his sophomore season at South Mountain Community College in Phoenix before transferring to the University of Utah, where he played the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
