Harold Jackson ( American football ) Harold Leon Jackson ( born January 6 , 1946 in Hattiesburg , Mississippi ) is a former American football wide receiver who played in the National Football League from 1968 through 1983 . Jackson was drafted in the 12th round ( 323 overall ) of the 1968 NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Rams . In 2014 Jackson was hired to serve as head coach at his alma mater Jackson State . Professional career . After appearing in only two games during his rookie season , he was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles and quickly emerged as one of the top receivers in the NFL , finishing the 1969 season with 65 receptions for a league - best 1 , 116 yards and 9 touchdowns . During his years with the Eagles , Jackson led the NFL in receptions in 1972 and in receiving yardage in both 1969 and 1972 . 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 TDs ( 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 TDs ) . During his career , Jackson was selected to play in the Pro Bowl 5 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 1st - 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 formed one of the NFL ' s best starting wide receiver duos of the late 1970s / early 1980s . In 1979 , Jackson finished with 1 , 013 yards receiving , 7 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 out 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 . 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 . On January 13 , 2014 , Jackson was named the head coach at Jackson State University .