Eddie Jackson (American football, born 1980)

Eddie Jackson (born December 19, 1980) is an American chef and former football cornerback. He was signed by the Carolina Panthers as an undrafted free agent in 2004. He played college football at the University of Arkansas.He is a member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity.
Jackson was also a member of the Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots and Washington Redskins.

In college, Jackson started 21 of 47 games at both the cornerback and strong safety slots for the University of Arkansas and totaled 174 tackles, 35 passes defensed, one forced fumble and two fumble recoveries. He also ran the high hurdles for the national champion Razorback track team. Eddie Jackson was also a College All-American in Track and Field where he won four national Titles. He still holds the freshman record for the 110 high hurdles.

Carolina Panthers

Jackson was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Carolina Panthers in 2004.

Miami Dolphins

He spent the 2005 and 2006 seasons with the Miami Dolphins, and ended his last year on injured reserve with a torn anterior cruciate ligament suffered in a December 25 contest.

Due in part to his injury, Jackson was not tendered a contract by the Dolphins as a restricted free agent.

New England Patriots

On March 19, 2007, Jackson signed a two-year deal with New England Patriots. The contract contained no signing bonus, and base salaries of $1,510,000 in 2007 and $1,605,000 in 2008. He was released by the Patriots during the 2007 season.

Washington Redskins

Jackson was signed by the Washington Redskins during the 2008 offseason but was released on June 5.

He accumulated a total of seven wins during the MasterChef competition. He was eliminated from MasterChef on July 31, 2013 and came in eighth place. On June 7, 2015, Jackson began competing in the eleventh season of the Food Network series Food Network Star. He was declared the winner of the competition on August 16.

Jackson would go on to host the Food Network cooking competition series BBQ Blitz; the first season consisted of six episodes. In April 2016, it was announced that he would be hosting a new cooking competition series for Food Network called Kids BBQ Championship, with model Camila Alves as co-host. The series premiered on May 23 and concluded on June 27.