Harold Jackson

Harold Leon Jackson (born January 6, 1946) is an American former football player and coach. He played professionally as a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) from 1968 through 1983 after a two-year stint playing college football for the Jackson State Tigers.

Jackson was selected by the Los Angeles Rams in the 12th round of the 1968 NFL/AFL draft, going on to far outperform his draft position over the course of a professional football career spanning well over a decade.

Jackson was a first team All-Pro in 1973 and was named a second team All-Pro in two other seasons. He appeared in a total of five Pro Bowl games. He twice led the NFL in total yards receiving, finishing with over 10,000 yards gained and 76 touchdowns in more than 200 game appearances.

College career Jackson attended Jackson State College in Jackson, Mississippi. He received a degree in secondary education in 1968. Outside of playing football at Jackson State, he was also a sprinting champion in college, with a best time of 9.3 seconds in the 100 yard dash.

Professional career Jackson was drafted 323rd overall in the 12th round by the Los Angeles Rams in 1968. After appearing in only two games during his rookie season, Jackson was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles along with defensive end John Zook for running back Israel Lang on July 7, 1969.

Prior to the 1973 NFL season, the Eagles traded Jackson back to the Rams for quarterback Roman Gabriel (who was expendable as the Rams had acquired John Hadl). Jackson led the NFL in receiving touchdowns in 1973 with 13 and helped the Rams rebound from a 6–7–1 record the previous season to a 12–2 finish that won them the first of 7 straight NFC West Division Championships. Statistically, his greatest NFL game came against Dallas on October 14, 1973, when he caught 7 passes for 238 yards and 4 touchdowns (this came in the midst of a string of four games in which he caught a total of 13 passes for 422 yards for a 32.5-yard average with 8 touchdowns).

During his career, Jackson was selected to play in the Pro Bowl five times. In 1972, he was named 2nd-team All-Pro by the Associated Press (AP), the Pro Football Writers Association (PFWA) and the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) and was voted 1st-team All-NFC by the Associated Press (AP), The Sporting News and UPI. He was a consensus first-team All-Pro and All-NFC choice in 1973. He was voted 2nd team All-NFC by UPI in 1976, 1st team All-NFC by The Sporting News and UPI in 1977 and 2nd team All-Pro by the NEA in 1977.

In 1978, Jackson was traded to the New England Patriots. Alongside Stanley Morgan, Jackson helped form one of the NFL's best starting wide receiver duos of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Jackson became the NFL's active leader in receiving yards when Fred Biletnikoff retired after 1978, and remained the league leader for his remaining five seasons. At the time he was ranked 15th all-time, but would eventually reach second place.

In 1979, Jackson finished with 1,013 yards receiving, seven touchdown receptions and was second in the NFL in yards-per-catch with an average of 22.5. His teammate Morgan, who was nine years younger than Jackson, was the only one to finish with a higher average that season. Jackson finished his career by playing one season each for the Minnesota Vikings (1982) and the Seattle Seahawks (1983).

During his career, Jackson had 29 career 100-yard games and three 1,000-yard seasons. At the time of his retirement, only Don Maynard had more career receiving yards than Jackson. He currently ranks 26th in league history in career receiving yardage. For the decade of the 1970s, Jackson ranked first in receptions (432), yards (7,724) and receiving touchdowns (61). Despite this, Jackson was not one of the wide receivers selected to the NFL's All-Decade Team for the 1970s and he has yet to be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

In 2011, the Professional Football Researchers Association named Jackson to the PRFA Hall of Very Good Class of 2011.

Coaching career After retiring from professional football, Jackson coached receivers for 10 years in the NFL with New England (1985–89), Tampa Bay (1992–93) and New Orleans (1997–99). In his first NFL season as a coach, the Patriots won the AFC Championship and played in Super Bowl XX. In 1987, he suited for two of the Patriots replacement games, but did not play. Jackson served as the receivers coach at Baylor University. Coach Jackson was fired on October 6, 2015, after the Tigers got off to a 1–4 start.

Career statistics NFL Legend Led the league Bold Career high

Year Team GPGS Receiving Rushing Rec Yds Avg Lng TD Att Yds Avg Lng TD 1968 LAR 2 0 — — — — — — — — — — 1969 PHI 14 14 65 1,116 17.2 65 9 2 10 5.0 6 0 1970 PHI 14 12 41 613 15 79 5 1 -5 -5.0 -5 0 1971 PHI 14 12 47 716 15.2 69 3 5 41 8.2 18 0 1972 PHI 14 14 62 1,048 16.9 77 4 9 76 8.4 34 0 1973 LAR 14 14 40 874 21.9 69 13 2 -8 -4.0 -3 0 1974 LAR 14 14 30 514 17.1 44 5 1 4 4.0 4 0 1975 LAR 14 14 43 786 18.3 54 7 — — — — — 1976 LAR 14 14 39 751 19.3 65 5 1 15 15.0 15 0 1977 LAR 14 14 48 666 13.9 58 6 1 6 6.0 6 0 1978 NE 1613 37 743 20.1 57 6 1 7 7.0 7 0 1979 NE 1616 45 1,013 22.5 59 7 3 12 4.0 12 0 1980 NE 1615 35 737 21.1 40 5 5 37 7.4 16 0 1981 NE 1615 39 669 17.2 45 0 2 -14 -7.0 -5 0 1982 MIN 1 0 — — — — — — — — — — 1983 SEA 15 6 8 126 15.8 29 1 — — — — — Career 208 187 579 10,372 17.9 79 76 33 181 5.5 34 0

Head coaching record

Notes and references