LA Rams: 15 greatest wide receivers of All Time

While not everyone knows about the NFL career of Rams Red Phillips, he is certainly a player worth learning about. Over his seven-year LA Rams career, he started in 76 of 82 games, catching 401 passes for 6,044 yards and 34 touchdowns.

While putting up pretty lofty numbers for his day, Phillips was very versatile for the offense as well. Standing 6-foot-1 and weighing 197-pounds, he lined up as a flanker, a tight end, or a split end.

While we have NFL celebrities today, back in the days of Jimmy ‘Red” Phillips, he was at an entirely different level. He was a hero for the Auburn Tigers, not just on the football field but as an overall athlete. He was their top sprinter, their top athlete, and his mentioning his name would open doors practically anywhere.

The LA Rams selected him fifth overall in the 1958 NFL Draft, and he proceeded to put on one helluva offensive display for the next seven years. In fact, he warmed the hearts of LA Rams fans as his circus catch helped the Rams score a second touchdown against the rival San Francisco 49ers, on their way to routing the Niners by a score of 56-7.

"“In a 56-7 rout of the 49’ers his rookie season, Jim Phillips “made an unbelievable catch of a 22-yard scoring strike in the end zone for the Rams’ second touchdown.” – [San Bernardino County Sun] as portray via photo caption by The War Eagle Reader.com"

His 1,092 yards and five touchdowns were good enough to earn him All-Pro honors. For his LA Rams career, he would go on to catch 333 passes for 4,953 yards and 27 touchdowns. Keep in mind that the NFL had not fully embraced the forward pass in the early 1960s as they have in the modern version.

This three-time NFL Pro Bowler for the LA Rams passed away on March 15, 2015. But the legend of Red Phillips will live on long into the future