RIP JACK TATUM

[BigStewMan]

Maybe the hardest hitter ever to play in the NFL. He was my favorite player. RIP Jack.

[oldtimer]

Oh man, not Tate! Very sad...

[sunburnwilly]

RIP , a nasty safety that would make any receiver think twice about going across the middle .

[jdm56]

Not a fan. I admit he was a ferocious hitter, though. It's players and coaches with his mentality that make the game more dangerous than it should be. We all like the "big hit", but nobody should be put in a wheelchair. I think the rules could be changed to make the game safer.

[oldtimer]

Since Tate played the rules have changed a LOT. He played the game with complete conviction, back when the game was not a sport for the faint of heart nor completely tied up in offense and the owner's pursuit of profits above all else. Frankly, I miss the old NFL. How many times has a guy been put in a wheel chair before or since? One incident does not make for a sweeping indictment of either personnel or structure of a game.

[BigStewMan]

He played the game with complete conviction, back when the game was not a sport for the faint of heart

that's for sure. i don't think we'll ever see a defensive backfield that could match Tatum & Atkinson. His teammates said that the Daryl Stingley incident haunted Tatum for the rest of his life. He was hated for it...and it was a clean hit. Refs didn't even throw a flag.

[HarryO]

R.I.P. Jack.

Man, that was football at it's best. Football was a game of attrition not the fancy deception plays of todays game. Granted it's still a great game but the Tatums, Butkus', Lotts, Nitschkes, Doblers, etc made football. The Deacon, Olsen, Page, Atkins, Evy....the list goes on. Hall of Fame for a reason.

[JL Sargent]

According to teamates Tatum was always haunted by the injury to Stingley.

An interesting fact:

"The injury came just after Stingley had finished negotiating a contract
extension that would have made him one of the highest paid receivers in
the NFL. The new contract was to be announced when the Patriots returned
from the West Coast. Instead, it was never signed."^]

I was a fan of Alabama's John Hannah back in the day when Stingley and Hannah were both drafted 1st round by the Patriots. The year was 1973.

[Dflip]

Head hunting was allowed in the old NFL and Tatum excelled at it, although the Stingley hit was to the back were he severed the fourth and fifth vertebrae. Today, we call that a late hit on an exposed receiver, in simple terms, a cheap shot. "In a curious juxtaposition, the man involved in one of the league’s most catastrophic accidents died within 24 hours of a league initiative to prevent head and neck injuries.

Tatum might have preferred to be known as the man who knocked the ball into Franco Harris' hands and led to the immaculate reception.

Given the improvements in equipment today, it's a good thing that head hunting gets you a 15 yard penalty and an expulsion from the game with fines and suspensions to follow. The shoulder and elbow pads are greater weapons today than they used to be. Take a look at hockey equipment and listen to Don Cherry, who loves guys who fight, because the material itself makes them a weapon. Combined with players being bigger and stronger too many good players were being knocked out by players who the fans didn't come to see.

"I understand why Darryl is considered the victim," Tatum wrote in his third book, "Final Confessions of NFL Assassin Jack Tatum." "But I'll never understand why some people look at me as the villain."

It's difficult to know what to extrapolate from comments like, "I like to believe that my best hits border on felonious assault."

"It could have happened to anybody," Tatum told Yahoo Sports in 2007, shortly after Stingley's death. "People are always saying, 'He didn't apologize.' I don't think I did anything wrong that I need to apologize for. It was a clean hit."

Tatum's word pretty much sum up his attitude.

May he rest in peace after he has to face Darryl Stingley.

[jdm56]

Since Tate played the rules have changed a LOT. He played the game with complete conviction, back when the game was not a sport for the faint of heart nor completely tied up in offense and the owner's pursuit of profits above all else. Frankly, I miss the old NFL. How many times has a guy been put in a wheel chair before or since? One incident does not make for a sweeping indictment of either personnel or structure of a game.

I don't think it was one incident. Lot's of players have been hurt badly from blind-side hits in the defensive backfield where the receiver's watching the ball or the QB, while the DB is zeroing in on the receiver and then uses his body and padding as a weapon on the essentially unprotected receiver. Tatum's hit on Stingley may have been clean in the sense there was no penalty, but it was still a cheap shot. And Tatum specialized in them. It to the NFL's shame that they allowed that kind of play to go on as long as they did. Just my opinion.

[oldtimer]

Clearly the answer is to strip the pads and helmets from defensemen, while allowing receivers to have wingmen on their flanks so the "players people come to see" (??? like raiders fans did not come to see guys like Tatum) are involved in as little contact as possible.

[jdm56]

Ha-Ha....Yeah, I know; Everybody loves the big hit's. But I'm sure that you, like me, also like to see both players spring right up again after the hit. Not lay there motionless on the ground while the paramedics come to cart them off the field. How many times do we see that? Way to often, IMO, and to me, it's just not worth it.

Like a lot of us, I love football and played through my middle and high school years, which doesn't make me an expert on the subject, but it does give me a perspective as a fan and as a former player. In those days we were coached to hit helmet to helmet and to stick our face shields right in an opponents numbers when making a tackle. Both these technics are awknowledged as dangerous today and are not taught.

I'm not sure what the answer is. Maybe no contact on a receiver in his route at all, and no contact until they've had time to catch the ball and take a step or two. Kind of like the rule that does not allow interference with a kick returners until they've had an opportunity to catch a punt or kick and to make a "football move".

Or we couold put dresses on receivers...but only those who play for Texas teams.[]

[RockOn4Klipsch]

I prefer rugby over football.

Albeit I know my fair share about American Football, it's slow and boring.

I went to a televised football game as a student and my expectation were crushed with TV timeouts, anybody can play a sport full bore for 2 minutes then take a 5 minute break.

I read "They Call me Assassin" for school, Tatum was an animal.

I still prefer rugby