John Taylor ( American football ) John Gregory Taylor ( born March 31 , 1962 ) is a former American football wide receiver with the San Francisco 49ers . Taylor attended Pennsauken High School and was one of six NFL players to come from PHS during the 1980s . Taylor attended Delaware State College and was a member of their football team , the Hornets . He was a member of the 49ers teams that won Super Bowl s XXIII , XXIV , and XXIX . College career . Taylor totaled 42 touchdowns ( 33 receiving ) over the course of his career at Delaware State , including 15 ( 13 receiving ) his senior season ( in only 10 games — they only played 10 games / season during that time period ) , both conference records . He caught 10 touchdown passes in both his sophomore and junior seasons . He is tied with kicker David Parkinson for most career points ( 254 ) in the conference . His 223 receiving yards in one game is also a conference record , and he has the two longest receptions in conference history , 97 and 93 yards . His 24 . 3 yards / catch average was the NCAA record until Jerome Mathis eclipsed it recently with 26 . 4 . One player has since slightly eclipsed his record in career receiving yardage ( Albert Horsey with 2 , 491 to Taylor ' s 2 , 426 ) , but he remains the most dominant and famous player to ever come out of the MEAC . He was named MEAC Offensive Player of the Year in 1985 and All - MEAC first team in 1984 and 1985 . NFL career . Taylor was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in the third round of the 1986 NFL draft with the 76th overall pick . This was ranked by ESPN as the 25th Greatest NFL Draft Steal of all time . Taylor played for the 49ers from 1987 to 1995 and was an exceptional counterpart to Hall of Fame teammate Jerry Rice during that time . He led the National Football League in punt return yards ( 556 ) in 1988 , and he may be best known for catching the winning 10 - yard touchdown pass from Joe Montana during the final seconds of Super Bowl XXIII in 1989 . He also set Super Bowl records in the game for longest punt return ( 45 yards ) , most punt return yards ( 56 ) , and highest punt return average ( 18 . 7 yards per return ) . By the conclusion of the 1988 season , which ended with his famous touchdown catch in the Super Bowl , Taylor had caught just 23 passes in his two years with the 49ers and was mainly used as punt and kick returner . But in the season after his Super Bowl winning touchdown reception , Taylor established himself as one of the top receivers in the NFL . Despite not being the # 1 receiver on his team , Taylor finished the 1989 season with 60 receptions for 1 , 077 yards and ten touchdowns ( the fourth most touchdown receptions by a player in the NFL that year ) . In a Monday night game against the Los Angeles Rams , Taylor scored touchdowns on two receptions of over 90 yards ( 92 and 96 ) , an NFL first . He also set a record for most receiving yards in back - to - back games with a total of 448 , a record he held until November 2006 when Chad Johnson ( now Chad Ochocinco ) of the Cincinnati Bengals broke it with 450 receiving yards . He broke the 1 , 000 receiving yard milestone again in the 1991 season with 64 receptions for 1 , 011 yards and nine touchdowns ( ranking him seventh in the NFL ) . In his nine NFL seasons , Taylor recorded 347 receptions for 5 , 589 yards ( an average of 16 . 1 yards per catch ) and 43 touchdowns . He also gained 1 , 517 yards and two touchdowns returning punts , and added another 276 yards returning kickoffs . He was selected to play in the NFL Pro Bowl twice , in 1988 and 1989 . He also won three super bowl rings in his career with the 49ers , in 1988 , 1989 , and 1994 . His combined total of 94 punt return yards in those three games are the most by any player in Super Bowl history , and his average of 15 . 7 yards per return is also the highest . Controversy . In 1988 , Taylor was suspended for the first four games of the NFL season for substance abuse . This marked a turning point in Taylor ' s career as he became very upset over the media scrutiny he received . To this day , he admits having used cocaine the first time he tested positive , but insists that the second positive test was a mistake . Life after football . Taylor used to own a trucking company but still drives a truck and leads a pretty quiet life off the field . His only moments in any sort of spotlight come when he ' s participating in celebrity golf events , such as ones sponsored by his alma mater , Delaware State . In 2005 , he was inducted into the Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame .