Rickey Jackson
Encyclopedia
Rickey Anderson Jackson (born March 20, 1958 in Pahokee, Florida
) is a former American football
linebacker
in the NFL
for the New Orleans Saints
(1981–1993) and the San Francisco 49ers
(1994–1995). In 1997, Jackson was inducted into the New Orleans Saints Hall of Fame. Jackson won a Super Bowl ring
with the 49ers in Super Bowl XXIX
one year before retiring. On February 7, 2010, Jackson was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame
.
in Pahokee, Florida. He made 188 tackles and caught 21 passes for eight touchdowns as a tight end
. In 2007 he was named to the Florida High School Athletic Association
's All-Century Team, consisting of the top 33 players in the 100-year history of high school football in Florida. Jackson's nickname, "City Champ", came from his days at Pahokee; he has variously said that he chose the name himself or was given it because of his performance on the field.
due to Hugh Green's presence on the team. Although overshadowed by Green, as a junior in 1979 Jackson was a second-team All-Big East selection and named an honorable mention All-American by the Associated Press
and The Sporting News
. As a senior in 1980, he was a second-team All-America
selection and a first-team All-Big East selection. Pitt's defense was ranked number one nationally in 1980.
Jackson ended his college career with 290 tackles, 166 of them unassisted. He also finished with 21 sacks, four passes defended and three interceptions. As a freshman he totaled 15 tackles and two interceptions, one returned for a touchdown. As a sophomore he made 27 tackles (21 unassisted) and five sacks. In 1979 he had 111 tackles (47 unassisted) and four sacks and recovered two fumbles. In 1980 he led the team with 137 tackles (87 solo), had 12 sacks, broke up four passes, recovered four fumbles and intercepted a pass. Following the game against Army in 1980, in which Jackson recorded 12 tackles, three sacks, a forced fumble, an interception, and a blocked punt, he was named the Sports Illustrated
Player of the Week. That same year, during the game against Penn State, he was chosen the ABC
/Chevrolet
Player-of-the-Game.
Jackson made 14 tackles in the Pittsburgh Gator Bowl
win and played in the Senior Bowl
, where he was a team captain. He was the MVP of the East-West Shrine Game
.
(53rd overall) from Pitt, Jackson was a member of the first draft in New Orleans under head coach Bum Phillips
. Jackson played in all 16 games his rookie season and was named to the NFL All-Rookie team. In 1983 he was first-team All-NFC, the first of seven seasons in which he'd receive post-season honors in the NFL, including being selected six times for the Pro Bowl
(in 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1992, and 1993). Jackson was a four-time first-team All-Pro and a two-time second-team All-Pro selection. He was a member of the Saints' famed "Dome Patrol
", a four-man linebacking corps named by the NFL Network
as the best in NFL history.
In his 13 seasons as a Saint, Jackson missed only two games, a result of an automobile accident in 1989. He played the remainder of the 1989 season with his jaw wired and wearing a special helmet, still managing to accumulate 7-1/2 sacks during the year.
In 1994, Jackson joined the 49ers. He won his only Super Bowl with the 49ers that year. He retired from the NFL following the 1995 season.
Jackson recorded 10 or more sacks in six different seasons and led the NFL in fumble recoveries in 1990 and 1991. He finished his career with 136 (eight unofficial in 1981) sacks and eight interceptions, which he returned for 68 yards. In his first year as a finalist in 2010, Jackson was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, one day before the Saints won Super Bowl XLIV
. His bust, sculpted by Scott Myers
, was unveiled at the Enshrinement Ceremony on August 7, 2010. He is the first member of the Hall of Fame to be inducted primarily for his contributions as a Saint.
At the end of the 1993 season, his final season with New Orleans, Jackson held the following Saints records.
Pahokee, Florida
Pahokee is a city located on the shore of Lake Okeechobee in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The population was 5,985 at the 2000 census. As of 2007, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 6,459. Culturally, Pahokee is associated with the Florida Heartland, although...
) is a former American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
linebacker
Linebacker
A linebacker is a position in American football that was invented by football coach Fielding H. Yost of the University of Michigan. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up approximately three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage, behind the defensive linemen...
in the NFL
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
for the New Orleans Saints
New Orleans Saints
The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans, Louisiana. They are members of the South Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League ....
(1981–1993) and the San Francisco 49ers
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and...
(1994–1995). In 1997, Jackson was inducted into the New Orleans Saints Hall of Fame. Jackson won a Super Bowl ring
Super Bowl ring
The Super Bowl ring is an award in the National Football League given to the winners of the league's annual championship game, the Super Bowl...
with the 49ers in Super Bowl XXIX
Super Bowl XXIX
Super Bowl XXIX was an American football game played on January 29, 1995 at Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami, Florida to decide the National Football League champion following the 1994 regular season...
one year before retiring. On February 7, 2010, Jackson was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame
Pro Football Hall of Fame
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of professional football in the United States with an emphasis on the National Football League . It opened in Canton, Ohio, on September 7, 1963, with 17 charter inductees...
.
Early years
Jackson's first name was originally spelled "Ricky"; he says he changed it himself in high school. Jackson played football and basketball at Pahokee High SchoolPahokee High School
The Pahokee High School is a historic school in Pahokee, Florida. It is located at 900 Larrimore Road. On November 15, 1996, The Old Pahokee High School building was added to the U.S...
in Pahokee, Florida. He made 188 tackles and caught 21 passes for eight touchdowns as a tight end
Tight end
The tight end is a position in American football on the offense. The tight end is often seen as a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. Like offensive linemen, they are usually lined up on the offensive line and are large enough to be...
. In 2007 he was named to the Florida High School Athletic Association
Florida High School Athletic Association
The Florida High School Athletic Association is an organization whose purpose is to organize sports competition for high school It is a member of the National Federation of State High School Associations ....
's All-Century Team, consisting of the top 33 players in the 100-year history of high school football in Florida. Jackson's nickname, "City Champ", came from his days at Pahokee; he has variously said that he chose the name himself or was given it because of his performance on the field.
College career
Jackson was known as "the other end" at the University of PittsburghUniversity of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
due to Hugh Green's presence on the team. Although overshadowed by Green, as a junior in 1979 Jackson was a second-team All-Big East selection and named an honorable mention All-American by the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
and The Sporting News
The Sporting News
Sporting News is an American-based sports magazine. It was established in 1886, and it became the dominant American publication covering baseball — so much so that it acquired the nickname "The Bible of Baseball"...
. As a senior in 1980, he was a second-team All-America
All-America
An All-America team is an honorary sports team composed of outstanding amateur players—those considered the best players of a specific season for each team position—who in turn are given the honorific "All-America" and typically referred to as "All-American athletes", or simply...
selection and a first-team All-Big East selection. Pitt's defense was ranked number one nationally in 1980.
Jackson ended his college career with 290 tackles, 166 of them unassisted. He also finished with 21 sacks, four passes defended and three interceptions. As a freshman he totaled 15 tackles and two interceptions, one returned for a touchdown. As a sophomore he made 27 tackles (21 unassisted) and five sacks. In 1979 he had 111 tackles (47 unassisted) and four sacks and recovered two fumbles. In 1980 he led the team with 137 tackles (87 solo), had 12 sacks, broke up four passes, recovered four fumbles and intercepted a pass. Following the game against Army in 1980, in which Jackson recorded 12 tackles, three sacks, a forced fumble, an interception, and a blocked punt, he was named the Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
Player of the Week. That same year, during the game against Penn State, he was chosen the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
/Chevrolet
Chevrolet
Chevrolet , also known as Chevy , is a brand of vehicle produced by General Motors Company . Founded by Louis Chevrolet and ousted GM founder William C. Durant on November 3, 1911, General Motors acquired Chevrolet in 1918...
Player-of-the-Game.
Jackson made 14 tackles in the Pittsburgh Gator Bowl
Gator Bowl
The Gator Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played at EverBank Field in Jacksonville, Florida. Held continuously since 1946, it is the sixth oldest college bowl, as well as the first one ever televised nationally...
win and played in the Senior Bowl
Senior Bowl
The Senior Bowl is a post-season college football exhibition game played in Mobile, Alabama which showcases the best NFL Draft prospects of those collegiate players who have completed their eligibility. First played in 1950 in Jacksonville, Florida, the game moved to Mobile's Ladd Peebles Stadium...
, where he was a team captain. He was the MVP of the East-West Shrine Game
East-West Shrine Game
The East–West Shrine Game is an annual post-season college football all-star game played each January since 1925. The game is sponsored by the fraternal group Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and the net proceeds are earmarked to some of the Shrine's charitable works, most notably the Shriners...
.
Professional career
Drafted in the second round of the 1981 NFL Draft1981 NFL Draft
The 1981 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 28–29, 1981...
(53rd overall) from Pitt, Jackson was a member of the first draft in New Orleans under head coach Bum Phillips
Bum Phillips
Oail Andrew "Bum" Phillips is a retired American football coach and the father of Wade Phillips, the Defensive Coordinator for the Houston Texans...
. Jackson played in all 16 games his rookie season and was named to the NFL All-Rookie team. In 1983 he was first-team All-NFC, the first of seven seasons in which he'd receive post-season honors in the NFL, including being selected six times for the Pro Bowl
Pro Bowl
In professional American football, the Pro Bowl is the all-star game of the National Football League . Since the merger with the rival American Football League in 1970, it has been officially called the AFC–NFC Pro Bowl, matching the top players in the American Football Conference against those...
(in 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1992, and 1993). Jackson was a four-time first-team All-Pro and a two-time second-team All-Pro selection. He was a member of the Saints' famed "Dome Patrol
Dome Patrol
The Dome Patrol was the nickname of the New Orleans Saints football team's linebacker corps of the late 1980s and the early 1990s. The Dome Patrol was rated by NFL Network as the #1 linebacker corps of all-time.Its members were:...
", a four-man linebacking corps named by the NFL Network
NFL Network
NFL Network is an American television specialty channel owned and operated by the National Football League . It was launched November 4, 2003, only eight months after the league's 32 team owners voted unanimously to approve its formation...
as the best in NFL history.
In his 13 seasons as a Saint, Jackson missed only two games, a result of an automobile accident in 1989. He played the remainder of the 1989 season with his jaw wired and wearing a special helmet, still managing to accumulate 7-1/2 sacks during the year.
In 1994, Jackson joined the 49ers. He won his only Super Bowl with the 49ers that year. He retired from the NFL following the 1995 season.
Jackson recorded 10 or more sacks in six different seasons and led the NFL in fumble recoveries in 1990 and 1991. He finished his career with 136 (eight unofficial in 1981) sacks and eight interceptions, which he returned for 68 yards. In his first year as a finalist in 2010, Jackson was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, one day before the Saints won Super Bowl XLIV
Super Bowl XLIV
Super Bowl XLIV was an American football game between the American Football Conference champion Indianapolis Colts and the National Football Conference champion New Orleans Saints to decide the National Football League champion for the 2009 season. The Saints defeated the Colts by a score of...
. His bust, sculpted by Scott Myers
Scott Myers
Scott Myers is an American painter and sculptor who lives and works in Texas. He graduated Texas A&M University in 1984 with a doctorate in veterinary medicine. He studied sculpture throughout Italy focusing on Florence, Venice and Rome. Sculpting in Tuscany, he cast his work in bronze at the...
, was unveiled at the Enshrinement Ceremony on August 7, 2010. He is the first member of the Hall of Fame to be inducted primarily for his contributions as a Saint.
Records
On his retirement following the 1995 season, Jackson held the following NFL records.- Second: Most Opponents Fumbles Recovered, Career – 28
- Third: Most Sacks, Career – 128.0
- Tied for third: Most Opponents' Fumbles Recovered, Season – 7 (1990)
At the end of the 1993 season, his final season with New Orleans, Jackson held the following Saints records.
- First: Most Games – 195
- First: Most Sacks, Career – 123.0 (includes unofficial 8.0 sacks in 1981)
- Tied for first: Most Seasons – 13
- First: Most Opponents Fumbles Recovered, Career – 26
- First: Most Opponents Fumbles Recovered, Season – 7 (1990)
- Tied for first: Most Sacks, Game – 4 (at Atlanta, Dec. 14, 1986; at Detroit, Sept. 18, 1988)