Tatum victim dies!

[white is right]

Sad day for the NFL as Darryl Stingley passed away today. Here is what Doctor Z had to say....Alfred L. of Santa Monica, Calif., asks a question that echoes many others coming in after the death of paralyzed wide receiver Darryl Stingley: Was the Jack Tatum hit that ended his career illegal?

Possibly, within the narrow boundaries of the rules as they existed in those days. But to my way of thinking, it was illegal. That was the era in which coaches at levels, pee wee on up, told their guys to "put a hat on him." They hit with their helmets. Safety factors, and the ensuing rules, since have negated that kind of football, although there are still people who teach it. But in those days players used the helmet to punish each other, and along with that philosophy went the desire to inflict maximum punishment on anyone in an unprotected or vulnerable position on the field. Which played right into Tatum's style.

I saw the Patriots-Raiders game live. I saw replays of the play countless times. I don't believe that the tackle that took Stingley down was the hit that did the damage. I think it came when he was on the ground, or just about to hit it. That's when Tatum drilled him and he was paralyzed. An awful, vicious hit, but not uncommon in those days -- particularly by Tatum, generally conceded to be the hardest hitter of his era.

Tatum never tried to speak to Stingley thereafter. He wrote a book, They Call Me Assassin, cashing in on the play. The idea of it gave me the creeps, but after all, when a guard dog is trained to kill, that's what it does, without remorse. The people toward whom I feel real animosity are the ones who actually went out and bought that book.

 

[sport historian]

Yes, it is sad what happened to Darryl Stingley. I once knew a man who played college football at Cincinnati, and was on the Steeler taxi squad one year. "Those are the chances you take," he told me.

The book, "They Call Me an Assasin," came out in 1979, as I remember. Tatum ripped Franco Harris throughout the book for "slips, running out of bounds, and caking out." These remarks about Franco got a lot of attention at the time.

 

[foreverfree]

In the fall of 1980 I had a college roommate who had a copy of They Call Me Assassin. I never read it, then or at any other time, and I don't remember if he ever showed me what the book had.

John

 

[white is right]

From what I have heard Tatum isn't in the best of shape either. He supposedly lost a limb to type 2 diabetes and is in bad shape. That hit may have cost a shot at the hall too. Tatum was a vicious guy, I recall a similar hit against a Vikings receiver(maybe Ahmad Rashad)in Superbowl XI late in the game with the Raiders having a comfortable lead.Edited by: white is right

 

[Don Wassall]

The Raiders-Steelers battles of the '70s were often vicious. Chuck Noll once remarked that Oakland hada "criminal element" on its team. Al Davis sued him for libel. Both teams had head-hunters and dirty players, though Tatum was the most notorious.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Jack Tatum may have been the hardest hitting safety of that era, but I think Jack Lambert was the hardest hitting guy in the whole league during his era. I think he could and would shut anybody's mouth up after hitting them.

 

[sport historian]

The Raiders-Steelers battles of the '70s were often vicious.  Chuck Noll once remarked that Oakland had a "criminal element" on its team.  Al Davis sued him for libel.  Both teams had head-hunters and dirty players, though Tatum was the most notorious. 

Don, do you remember what caused the "criminal element" remark? During the 1975 AFC East Champioship game, Raider safety George Atkinson hit Lynn Swann with a forearm smash, giving Swann a concussion. The next year, in the season opener, Atkinson did it again, hurting Swann even worse. This hit was shown over and over on TV at the time. Chuck Noll blasted Atkinson after the game.

George Atkinson (and Al Davis) sued Noll for 2 million dollars. At the trial, while Noll was testifying, films were shown of Steeler players handing out a lot of vicious blows and cheap shots. Steeler CB Mel Bount was one of the players shown. Atkinson's lawyer asked Noll; "Well, are there any members of the NFL's criminal element on the Steelers?" Noll was forced to admit that some of his own players could be members of the so-called "criminal element."

I remenber that Mel Blount was very angry at Noll for his testimony. "He called me a criminal," Blount said. By the way, Atkinson lost the suit.

 

[Don Wassall]

SH, I don't remember if there was a specific incident that precipitated Noll's remark, or if it was an accumulation of events that sparked it. The Raiders and Steelers met in the playoffs after the '74, '75 and '76 seasons and also had some memorable regular season games. The Steelers went on to win the Super Bowl in '74 and '75, with the Raiders winning it in '76 (actually January of '77). It was a genuinely nasty and bitter rivalry.


Mel Blount was definitely a head-hunter type of intimidator. Joe Greene and the others on the "Steel Curtain" front line were not exactly known as gentlemen on the field. The huge hits and dirty play went both ways, not just by one team.

 

[GWTJ]

I read Tatum's book. It was pretty insightful. It seemed to me that he was pretty honest about his football experience.

It's been over twenty years since I read it but I remember some things he said very well. He looked up to Woody Hayes, his college coach. In fact, he revered him and praised him throughout the book.

He said Larry Csonka was the toughest running back he played against. He said that because Csonka ran low to the ground and warded off tacklers with his elbows, he never got a good shot on him but was on the receiving end many times.

He talked about the head on collision he had with Walter Payton at the goal line. They met full speed head on and they both fell off to the side. He called it a draw and praised Payton as the best RB in the NFL at the time.

He was critical of Jack Lambert but praised Jack Ham. He said that the Raiders targeted Franco as a potential weak spot on the Steelers. He said they wanted to test Franco's courage because it was suspect. He said that the outcome of the game could be riding on Franco's courage.

One of the more interesting things in the book was his relationship with Al Davis. He said that when he was playing good, solid, mistake free football, Davis criticized him. But when he knocked out an opponent in three straight games, Davis publicly said that he was playing the best football of his career. The handwriting was on the wall, Davis was paying him to be an intimidator, a thug.

The impression I got from the book was that it did seem to bother him that he was valued for hurting people, and not valued for being a good football player.

I hated the Raiders back then. Them and the Cowboys. I think I became a Steeler fan because they were the only team that could beat those two teams.

I would say that while it lasted, the Raiders-Steelers rivalry was the most bitter rivalry ever. I know there have been longer rivalries, like the Packers-Bears, but the Raiders-Steelers rivalry, at its peak, was the most intense yet.

When the Raiders finally won the Super Bowl, Al Davis had inscribed on the ring 24-6. That was the score of the AFC Championship game where the Raiders beat the Steelers. That says it all right there.

 

[Don Wassall]

I would say that while it lasted, the Raiders-Steelers rivalry was the most bitter rivalry ever. I know there have been longer rivalries, like the Packers-Bears, but the Raiders-Steelers rivalry, at its peak, was the most intense yet.

When the Raiders finally won the Super Bowl, Al Davis had inscribed on the ring 24-6. That was the score of the AFC Championship game where the Raiders beat the Steelers. That says it all right there.

I agree that it was the most bitter rivalry in league history. Of the six-year period in the '70s when the Steelers wonfour Super Bowls, the '76 team that lost to the Raiders in the AFC Championship game is acknowledged by just about all Steelers fans as the strongest, better than all four Super Bowl winners, which explains why Al Davis inscribed the SB rings the way he did.


After screwing around and starting off 1-4 coming off their first two Super Bowl wins, the '76 Steelers went on the most dominating run in NFL history, winning their last nine regular season games to get into the playoffs. Here's the scores of those nine straight wins:


23-6


27-0


23-0


45-0


14-3


32-16


7-3


42-0


21-0


Wow! That's a cumulative score of 234 to 28!


In their first playoff game, the Steelers destroyed the Colts in Baltimore, 40-14. But in the championship game in Oakland the next week, both Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier were out with injuries, and with no running game the Raiders pulled off the upset and then won the Super Bowl against the Vikings. The '76 Steelers werea team that seemed destined to roll to a third straight Super Bowl win, so it's easy to see why Davis and the Raiders got so much satisfaction from that victory.

 

[foreverfree]

Don, I think that 7-3 score was the game in Cincinnati played on a snow covered carpet at Riverfront Stadium. Feel free to correct me.

The '76 Steelers weren't even the first team to turn around from 1-4 to 10-4. The 1975 Colts with their Sack Pack did the same thing in winning the AFC East. The Steelers stopped them in the divisional playoff that year too. But the Steelers' '76 feat was definitely dominating. Five Lombardis in six years would have been legendary.

After my Eagles were eliminated, I rooted for NE to trip up Indy in the 2006 AFC title game and have a chance to match Pittsburgh's feat of 4 titles in 6 years. As I think I said in the past on CF, I enjoy watching dynasties unfold, although of course I want a competitive league where everyone has a chance. Make that dynasty be earned.

John

 

[Realgeorge]

The Raiders-Steelers battles of the '70s were often vicious.  Chuck Noll once remarked that Oakland had a "criminal element" on its team.  Al Davis sued him for libel.  Both teams had head-hunters and dirty players, though Tatum was the most notorious. 

Art Donovan and Ordell Brasse used to chair a Baltimore Ravens' weekly show some years back. The show got cancelled, in my humble opinion, because Donovan was critical of black players, especially those who deserved it. Donovan recalled an Al Davis scouting visit to his first Colts' training camp, ca. 1956. He called Davis and his entourage "a band of criminals" and other flatteries. Donovan frequently claimed that he played "hard but never dirty" and praised similar players of his era. He had a particular fondness for Bob Lilly and the Dallas Cowboys' defense of the era

Very Sad about Darry Stingley. Jack Tatum was a perfect "role model" for future negro football thugs to follow.Edited by: Realgeorge