Eddie Jackson 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.
In college, Jackson started 21 of 47 games at both the cornerback and strong safety slots for the University of Arkansas. He also ran the high hurdles for the national champion Razorback track team. 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.
During his professional football career, Jackson was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Carolina Panthers in 2004.
He then 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.
On March 19, 2007, Jackson signed a two-year deal with the 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.
Jackson was signed by the Washington Redskins during the 2008 offseason but was released on June 5.
After retiring from football, Jackson became a personal trainer, as well as owning a food truck, Caribbean Grill, in Houston. Cooking had been a lifelong passion of his.
Jackson was a contestant on season 4 of the reality cooking competition show MasterChef, which aired in 2013. He came in eighth place on the show.
Jackson then competed on the eleventh season of the Food Network series Food Network Star, which aired in summer 2015. He was declared the winner of the competition, beating out eleven other contestants.
As a reward for winning Food Network Star, Jackson got his own Food Network cooking competition series, BBQ Blitz, in which contestants competed to create the best barbecue dish; Jackson served as the host. The show ran for six episodes in late 2015. Since 2016 he has hosted the Food Network cooking competition series Kids BBQ Championship. For the first season in 2016 his co-host was model Camila Alves, while for the 2nd season in 2017 his co-host was fellow Food Network Star winner (season 9) Damaris Phillips. He also infrequently served as a judge on Clash of the Grandmas. Jackson is the current host of Christmas Cookie Challenge on the Food Network, as well as one of the judges. Jackson has also appeared on Chopped as a judge. In 2021, he is a team captain of BBQ Brawl competing against Bobby Flay and Michael Symon.
