DeSean Jackson

DeSean William Jackson (born December 1, 1986) is an American former football wide receiver who played in the National Football League (NFL).

Against eleventh-ranked Oregon, he caught 11 passes for 161 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Bears to their first victory in Autzen Stadium since 1987.

He was named the 2004 Glenn Davis Award winner by the Los Angeles Times as Southern California's player of the year.

He also ran track and played baseball and was scouted by both the Tampa Bay Rays and Philadelphia Phillies in his senior year.

In track, he was timed at 10.5 seconds in the 100 meters.

Jackson caught 60 passes for 1,075 yards for 15 touchdowns his senior year, leading the Jackrabbits to a CIF Southern Section championship.

He was pressed into service last minute as a defensive back in the section title game against Los Alamitos High School, responding with two interceptions, one which he returned 68 yards for a touchdown to help fuel Long Beach Poly's 21–6 victory.

To cap off his high school career, Jackson was voted the Most Valuable Player at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio, where he caught seven passes for 141 yards and passed for a 45-yard touchdown in leading the West to a 35–3 victory in a game that featured 80 of the nation's top players.

However, he was also involved in an embarrassing play when he attempted to somersault from the five-yard line for a touchdown, but landed on the one-yard line, leaving the football there.

ESPN.com's Tom Lemming rated him as the number four wide receiver in the country, PrepStar Magazine named him an All-American and a member of its Dream Team Top 100 players, and Calhisports.com voted him the 2004 Mr. Football State Player of the Year.

He committed to the football program at the University of California, Berkeley under Coach Jeff Tedford, making his announcement on Southern California's FSN West.

Jackson waited until the deadline to choose between scholarship offers for California and the University of Southern California.

Jackson attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he played for the California Golden Bears football team from 2005 to 2007.

Wearing the number 1, in his first collegiate game against Sacramento State in 2005, he scored both an offensive and special teams touchdown, returning a punt 49 yards for a score.

Throughout his freshman season, Jackson picked up 38 receptions for 601 yards along with seven touchdowns, eclipsing the 100-yard mark three times.

In the 2005 Las Vegas Bowl game against BYU, Jackson tallied 130 yards and two scores.

Jackson was also expected to play for Cal's baseball team but, due to the success of his freshman football season, he chose to focus exclusively on football.

Coming into his sophomore year with high expectations, Jackson displayed more of his talent and playmaking ability, tallying 1,060 receiving yards and nine touchdowns.

Jackson also returned four punts for touchdowns.

He earned first-team All-Pac-10 honors as both a punt returner and a wide receiver.

Jackson garnered national recognition with selections to first-team All-America by the Associated Press, Walter Camp Football Foundation, the Football Writers Association of America, the Sporting News, and Rivals.com as a punt returner.

Jackson also captured the inaugural Randy Moss Award as the top returner in the nation.

In one of only two California losses in Pac-10 play, Jackson had a 95-yard punt return for a touchdown against Arizona.

Jackson entered his junior season being considered a Heisman Trophy candidate.

His season began promisingly, with a 77-yard punt return for a touchdown against Tennessee in the opening game of the season.

He played college football for the California Golden Bears, where he was recognized as a two-time, first-team All-American in 2006 and 2007.

Jackson finished the 2007 season with 65 catches for 762 yards, and scored six touchdowns as a receiver.

Jackson was named an All-American as a return specialist.

Jackson suffered several minor injuries that limited his effectiveness at times during the season, along with a right thigh injury that forced him to miss most of the game against Washington and the Big Game against Stanford.

He also missed the first quarter of the 2007 Armed Forces Bowl for violating undisclosed team rules.

Jackson left Cal following the 2007 season and declared for the 2008 NFL Draft.

He departed holding Pac-10 records for punts returned for a touchdown both in a season (four) and in a career (six).

Jackson ranks third all-time at California for receiving yards with 2,423 and receiving touchdowns with 22.

He is sixth in receptions (162).

Jackson finished with 52 career plays of 20 yards or more, making up 23 percent of his 226 touches.

He was selected by the Philadelphia Eagles in the second round of the 2008 NFL Draft, and also played for the Washington Redskins, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Los Angeles Rams, and Baltimore Ravens.

Jackson was selected to the Pro Bowl three times, and was the first player selected to the Pro Bowl at two different positions in the same year when he was named to the 2010 Pro Bowl as a wide receiver and return specialist.

Jackson was born in Los Angeles, and grew up in the Crenshaw neighborhood of Los Angeles of the city.

He attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School, the same high school as future Philadelphia Eagles teammate Winston Justice and many other current NFL players.

He became one of the top wide receiver recruits in the nation, with many collegiate football programs pursuing his services.