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As one of football’s most dazzling talents, Lamar Jackson has taken hold of more headlines than most since first emerging on the collegiate scene.
The Ravens’ quarterback is a blur on his day, capable of dropping seeds across the M&T Bank Stadium’s lush grounds with elegant passing or slaloming beyond weary defenders to get to the end zone. With two MVPs (and counting) for the Louisville product, Jackson is well on his way to a gold jacket. Adding a Super Bowl title — or several — would be the cherry on top for the duel-threat talent.
Jackson is known for his on-field exploits. But as his starpower has swelled, so too has interest in his personal life, namely his familial ties.
With that, here’s what you need to know about Jackson’s family tree.
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Lamar Jackson father: Lamar Jackson Sr.
Jackson’s father was Lamar Jackson Sr. Not much is known about the elder Jackson outside of the fact that he’s his son’s namesake and he lived in Pompano Beach, Florida.
Jackson’s father passed away in 2005, when Jackson was just eight years old. Jackson’s grandmother passed away the same day.
“It was crazy. I was hurt, you know, I was crying a lot,” Jackson said during a 2016 appearance on “The Dan Patrick Show“. “My father passed, but then my mom found out my grandma passed, probably an hour later actually.
“I loved them to death, and I still try to make them happy. I’m blessed right now, thankful. But Mom said, ‘You can’t cry, you can’t cry.’ So, you know, I have to suck it up. I’m listening to my mother.”
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Lamar Jackson mother: Felicia Jones
Jackson’s mother is Felicia Jones. She has played a vital role in making Jackson the athlete — and man — he is today.
“My immediate family is my mom,” Jackson told The Courier-Journal in 2016. “Everything goes around her. I’m a mama’s boy. That’s my baby. That’s my mama. … She’s the one who keeps me motivated no matter what. She’s driving me.”
Jackson has likened his mother to a “superhero”, praising her for her resiliency and compassionate nature in the aftermath of his father’s death. She gave him the freedom to continue to wade onto the gridiron, he said. In fact, Jones helped Jackson refine the finer points of his game as a youngster.
“A lot of people helped me get better when I was young, but the best coach I’ve ever had was also my first one: Mom,” Jackson wrote in The Players Tribune in 2016. “And I’m not saying that just because she looked out for me and encouraged me to pursue football and all that stuff. I mean she actually made me grind to get better.”
From tagging along with Jackson while he raced across bridges in Pompano Beach to build up his endurance to doing contact drills with Jackson and his brother, Jones — a former basketball play — was always around the lend a helping hand. She’s still doing so all these years later; following a Dec. 2024 loss to the Eagles, Jones “cussed out” her son, telling Jackson he should’ve ran the ball more.
“She said there were lanes I should have [taken] and ran, but I was trying to let guys develop routes,” Jackson said, per NFL.com. “We had developing routes. I was just trying to go through my progressions, but yes, she’s right. I’m sorry for this. I’m just mad, because I feel like we should win these games, and we’re not getting them done.”
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Lamar Jackson brother: Jamar Jackson
Jackson’s younger brother is Jamar. The two gravitated to the Pompano Beach’s marshy plains as children, cloaking themselves in headgear and armor to take on the neighborhood’s best and brightest talents.
It was in that environment where their relationship flourished. Lamar and Jamar Jackson ran drills together, fortifying their burgeoning skillset. Lamar Jackson’s ascension to NFL stardom hasn’t made him lose track of their kinship. He has the phrase “My Brother’s Keeper” tattooed on his arm, an apparent reference to he and Jamar’s camaraderie.
That feeling is mutual, Jamar Jackson explained in a video shown to Lamar during the 2018 NFL Draft.
“From the time we were younger, I always knew you were special, I just didn’t know how important it was from when we were outside playing to you jumping over my head in the backyard,” Jamar Jackson said. “From ever since we was younger to high school playing with each other, I always loved you. You make my life special. I wouldn’t know what to do without you.”
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Lamar Jackson sisters
Jackson has two sisters. Little is known about them — their names haven’t even yet been made public.
Lamar Jackson daughter: Milan Jackson
Jackson has one daughter, Milan, who was born on Jan. 4, 2021.
Not much is known about Jackson’s daughter, nicknamed Lani. She celebrated her first birthday in 2022, frolicking in the snow in a Moncler jacket.
Jackson has largely kept his personal life private in recent years. Still, he’s offered occasional glimpses into family life, beaming with pride after outfitting Milan in a Flintstones-themed costume in Nov. 2021.
“You liked it? She look good?” Jackson asked reporters after someone complimented his daughter’s outfit, per Ravens.com.
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Lamar Jackson girlfriend: Jaime Taylor
Jackson is dating Jaime Taylor, a fellow South Florida native and Louisville alum. The couple has been together since 2017, Jackson’s final season with the Cardinals.
Taylor is fairly private, staying off social media and rarely offering public comments on her life with Jackson. Nevertheless, she did detail some of the lessons she’s learned since dating Jackson in a 2019 piece for Ravens.com.
“He’s taught me how to handle criticism,” Taylor said. “I mean, I used to get mad when I’d read stuff. Then I’d look at him, and he’s just fine. He says, ‘Let them do the talking. You don’t have to say anything. Just show them.'”
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Lamar Jackson cousins
James Pierre
Jackson and Steelers cornerback James Pierre are first cousins. Both hail from Broward County. They retain constant contact with one another — in 2021, Pierre told reporters they talk to each other every day.
Unsurprisingly, Jackson and Pierre shared the field throughout their youth. They played on the same Pop Warner team, the Northwest Broward Raiders, even claiming a pair of “Super Bowls” in their local circuit. They were battery mates, after all; Jackson was the hurler, Pierre his loyal catcher.
“That guy’s crazy,” Pierre said of his cousin’s skills. “You never know with him.”
And although Pierre can’t quite claim the title of family’s best player — at least not yet — he does believe he has one thing on Jackson.
“Me,” Pierre said when asked who is the faster of the two cousins. “I’m gonna say it straight up.”
Trayvon Mullen and Tiawan Mullen
Jackson is also cousins with fellow football players Trayvon and Tiawan Mullen. The duo played at Clemson and Indiana, respectively, with the former capturing two collegiate titles with the Tigers and the latter being named first-team All-American in 2020.
As is the case with Pierre, the Mullen brothers are cornerbacks. Trayvon Mullen has faced off against Jackson on multiple occasions, once at Clemson, another time in the big leagues.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Trayvon Mullen told NCAA.com ahead of their 2017 matchup. “We talk a lot. I tell him we’re ready to get after him and I’m just ready to compete with him and it’s going to be a challenge. We talk every day even when we’re not playing. We don’t talk so much about football.”
Baltimore even plucked Trayvon Mullen off of waivers following his Cowboys release in 2023, placing him on injured reserve in Aug. 2024.
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Is Lamar Jackson related to Samuel L. Jackson?
Despite their last names — and perhaps a subtle resemblance, Lamar Jackson is not related to famed actor Samuel. L. Jackson.
The Ravens quarterback grew up in Florida in Broward County, attending high school in Boynton Beach. Meanwhile, the actor was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Chattanooga, Tenn.
That hasn’t stopped the internet from coming up with memes pointing out the similarities between the two’s likenesses.
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