R.I.P. Jack Tatum
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Poole: Former Raider Jack Tatum was unfairly defined by tragic accident that paralyzed Darryl Stingley
By Monte Poole
[email protected]
Posted: 07/27/2010 09:51:40 PM PDT
Updated: 07/27/2010 11:15:01 PM PDT
Snug inside his silver-and-black helmet was a full and unruly Afro, a bushy beard, a thick mustache and a pair of dark-brown eyes, heavy-lidded and conveying malevolence.
Jack Tatum looked like an outlaw, which made his visage the most intimidating in Raiders history.
Tatum, who during his career earned the nickname "The Assassin," died Tuesday morning after suffering a heart attack at his Oakland home. He was 61. He leaves behind his wife, Denise, three children and a vault full of indelible memories.
He also leaves behind the terrible misperception that he was a man as chilling and remorseless as his appearance — all of which goes back to a single play that overshadowed a remarkable career. During a 1978 preseason game in Oakland, Tatum delivered a typically brutal hit to New England wide receiver Darryl Stingley. Tatum got up, Stingley did not. He instead lay supine, motionless, having suffered two fractured vertebrae. Paralyzed from the neck down, he spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair.
Tatum spent the rest of his life being vilified. It was as if he grew horns and carried a pitchfork. He was blamed for Stingley's condition and the common feeling was he never personally apologized or showed the proper level of contrition.
Fact is, though, Tatum made efforts to visit Stingley. Before Stingley's death in 2007, intermediaries made several attempts to bring the two together, to bury the ugly past, and each time Stingley, feeling he was being exploited, declined involvement.
"I feel sorry for what happened to him," Tatum told Yahoo Sports in 2007. "I tried to apologize to him a number of times, but people around him wouldn't let that happen."
If Tatum wasn't properly contrite, it's because he understood the incident was a tragic accident. Referees threw no flags. The league issued no fine. Stingley's own coach, Chuck Fairbanks, conceded it was a clean hit.
Tatum was doing what he had been trained to do. He was making the kind of punishing tackle that put Dick Butkus in the Hall of Fame and became Ronnie Lott's signature. Tatum was playing as he had been taught by coach Woody Hayes at Ohio State University, then John Madden and Al Davis with the Raiders.
Tatum enjoyed playing free safety, loved it from the depths of his soul, with every inch and ounce of his 5-foot-10, 200-pound body. He was not a big man, but he packed a wallop. Nobody marked his territory with more relish. Receivers and running backs who dared to enter anticipated a punitive fee.
Tatum made a simple football play on Stingley that ended with catastrophic results. Yet that snapshot polished Tatum's legend, sealing his reputation as a defender who specialized in terror.
Tatum understood as well as anyone that apologizing for his actions would have been disingenuous. He was paid to hit. To apologize for the hit itself was to apologize to anyone he'd ever hit, to everyone he'd ever tackled, for the tactics of football.
No apologies were sought when Tatum was being selected to three Pro Bowls.
No apologies were sought when he rammed into Pittsburgh's Frenchy Fuqua at the precise moment the pass arrived, knocking the ball through the air and into the hands of Franco Harris, who grabbed it and raced into the end zone to give the Steelers a win in the 1972 AFC Playoffs.
There was no apology when, 19 months before the hit on Stingley, Tatum delivered a blow to Minnesota's Sammy White that knocked the helmet off the receiver's head. Clearly dazed, White was down for a moment but somehow held onto the ball as his helmet rolled away.
The hit became one of the most memorable — and celebrated — in Super Bowl history.
How was Tatum, or anyone else, to reconcile the response to that with the response to the Stingley hit?
Yet the outcome landed upon Jack with considerable weight. It was the curse that came with his style of play. It's why Tatum in retirement measured his exposure, even as he cowrote three books detailing his approach to football and articulating the essence of his career — and even as he battled diabetes and established a foundation to increase awareness of the disease.
He was a creation of football and the violence it glorifies. People get hurt, sometimes seriously.
He was a tough man in a tough game. That's what he brought to the Raiders. If Jim Otto is the enduring symbol of the franchise, Tatum represents the enduring spirit.
By Monte Poole
[email protected]
Posted: 07/27/2010 09:51:40 PM PDT
Updated: 07/27/2010 11:15:01 PM PDT
Snug inside his silver-and-black helmet was a full and unruly Afro, a bushy beard, a thick mustache and a pair of dark-brown eyes, heavy-lidded and conveying malevolence.
Jack Tatum looked like an outlaw, which made his visage the most intimidating in Raiders history.
Tatum, who during his career earned the nickname "The Assassin," died Tuesday morning after suffering a heart attack at his Oakland home. He was 61. He leaves behind his wife, Denise, three children and a vault full of indelible memories.
He also leaves behind the terrible misperception that he was a man as chilling and remorseless as his appearance — all of which goes back to a single play that overshadowed a remarkable career. During a 1978 preseason game in Oakland, Tatum delivered a typically brutal hit to New England wide receiver Darryl Stingley. Tatum got up, Stingley did not. He instead lay supine, motionless, having suffered two fractured vertebrae. Paralyzed from the neck down, he spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair.
Tatum spent the rest of his life being vilified. It was as if he grew horns and carried a pitchfork. He was blamed for Stingley's condition and the common feeling was he never personally apologized or showed the proper level of contrition.
Fact is, though, Tatum made efforts to visit Stingley. Before Stingley's death in 2007, intermediaries made several attempts to bring the two together, to bury the ugly past, and each time Stingley, feeling he was being exploited, declined involvement.
"I feel sorry for what happened to him," Tatum told Yahoo Sports in 2007. "I tried to apologize to him a number of times, but people around him wouldn't let that happen."
If Tatum wasn't properly contrite, it's because he understood the incident was a tragic accident. Referees threw no flags. The league issued no fine. Stingley's own coach, Chuck Fairbanks, conceded it was a clean hit.
Tatum was doing what he had been trained to do. He was making the kind of punishing tackle that put Dick Butkus in the Hall of Fame and became Ronnie Lott's signature. Tatum was playing as he had been taught by coach Woody Hayes at Ohio State University, then John Madden and Al Davis with the Raiders.
Tatum enjoyed playing free safety, loved it from the depths of his soul, with every inch and ounce of his 5-foot-10, 200-pound body. He was not a big man, but he packed a wallop. Nobody marked his territory with more relish. Receivers and running backs who dared to enter anticipated a punitive fee.
Tatum made a simple football play on Stingley that ended with catastrophic results. Yet that snapshot polished Tatum's legend, sealing his reputation as a defender who specialized in terror.
Tatum understood as well as anyone that apologizing for his actions would have been disingenuous. He was paid to hit. To apologize for the hit itself was to apologize to anyone he'd ever hit, to everyone he'd ever tackled, for the tactics of football.
No apologies were sought when Tatum was being selected to three Pro Bowls.
No apologies were sought when he rammed into Pittsburgh's Frenchy Fuqua at the precise moment the pass arrived, knocking the ball through the air and into the hands of Franco Harris, who grabbed it and raced into the end zone to give the Steelers a win in the 1972 AFC Playoffs.
There was no apology when, 19 months before the hit on Stingley, Tatum delivered a blow to Minnesota's Sammy White that knocked the helmet off the receiver's head. Clearly dazed, White was down for a moment but somehow held onto the ball as his helmet rolled away.
The hit became one of the most memorable — and celebrated — in Super Bowl history.
How was Tatum, or anyone else, to reconcile the response to that with the response to the Stingley hit?
Yet the outcome landed upon Jack with considerable weight. It was the curse that came with his style of play. It's why Tatum in retirement measured his exposure, even as he cowrote three books detailing his approach to football and articulating the essence of his career — and even as he battled diabetes and established a foundation to increase awareness of the disease.
He was a creation of football and the violence it glorifies. People get hurt, sometimes seriously.
He was a tough man in a tough game. That's what he brought to the Raiders. If Jim Otto is the enduring symbol of the franchise, Tatum represents the enduring spirit.
Willie Brown on Jack Tatum
By Jerry McDonald - NFL Writer
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 at 4:59 pm in Oakland Raiders.
A transcription of Raiders’ Hall of Fame cornerback Willie Brown talking about the passing of former teammate and Pro Bowl safety Jack Tatum:
Q: Was Jack’s passing a surprise? Had some issues with diabetes, but had he been ill?
Brown: No, not to my knowledge. He was on a list for a kidney transplant for the last two or three months, I guess. I saw him at Fred Biletnikoff’s golf tournament. We hung out the night before, went to some places up there, had a good time together. But was surely a surprise to hear he had passed away this morning because, you know, a great guy, Jack, we played together when he first came to the Raiders. He was my roommate the first year, he hung out with me, I made him do all the dirty work, you know, that needed to be done. But he’s just a great guy, a truly, truly great Raider. You talk about all the guys who are Mr. Raider, and he fit in that same category, as one of the guys who would be Mr. Raider.
Q: Was there a better hitter in the NFL as a defensive back?
Brown: He and Ronnie Lott. You pick them. They are probably the two I ever played against or have seen play the game. None better. Jack took care of me in terms of knowing he’d be in the post position. I didn’t’ worry about guys running posts or slants. I could sit outside because if you go inside you’ll get your head taken off. I just kind of played that way. Jack was the type of guy who was very smart. He studied a lot. He knew things would happen before they would happen.
Q: Did most people realize after time that he was playing by the rules and Stingley was an unfortunate accident?
Brown: Well no, they really don’t. Talk to people in New England, they don’t realize. Talk to the fans here in Oakland and they understand football probably a little bit better than the folks back there because that’s part of the game. Now the impact, the hit, all those things, that could happen to anybody at any given time. Jack, he hit me and tore my biceps in my arm. ‘Don’t worry about me, just take care of whatever you have to take care of.’ He was just that type of player. He wasn’t the type of person who was really out trying to maim anybody or hurt anybody. He was just doing his job. That’s the way he played the game.
Q: Did that hit hurt him in later years?
Brown: I’m sure when you play against a former player or whoever. You want to do your job No. 1. You want to hurt him but you want to hurt him to get him out of the game but hope he’d be back next week. You don’t want to end his career, Jack was that type of guy. You’re not trying to end somebody’s career. He was just doing his job. Unfortunate things happen in football. You see it all the time. You see guys having heat stroke on the football field. That’s just part of life.
Q: What was he like off field?
Brown: Very mild, very quiet. Very, very quiet. Jack didn’t say much so you didn’t bother him. He didn’t say much so you didn’t ask him a whole bunch of questions. You just leave him alone. Very good in the community, not only in the state of California. He did a lot of things back in Ohio and in his hometown Passaic. He did some things in the south. Jack was all over, doing things in the community.
Q: A coach once said guys today don’t know the old-timers but they all knew Jack Tatum?
Brown: No question about it. Because of his reputation in the league over the years. You can’t help but to know him when you talk about good hitters, great hitters, great safeties. Jack Tatum is ranked right up there as the No. 1 guy.
Q: Do you have a favorite hit?
Brown: The one that is favorite to me is in the Super Bowl when we played the Minnesota Vikings. But he hit a former Grambling-ite, Sammy White. I told Sammy, ‘Don’t go inside Sammy.’ That’s probably one of the greatest hits I’ve ever seen.
Q: How intimidated were opponents of him?
Brown: Not only against him but most teams were intimidated when they see the Silver and Black come on the field. That’s how we wanted them to feel. We wanted them to feel like ‘hey, we’re going to kick your ass today.’ The way we walked, the way we talked and the leadership. When you see Al Davis walk along the sideline, that’s kind of intimidating to guys to see him walking up and down the sideline before we started the game. Teams they did, they knew the type of reputation we had back there. Not only with the defensive backs but the linebackers and the defensive line.
Q: In NBA they changed rules because of Wilt, was that case with Jack?
Brown: I can give you 25 changes in the league caused by the Raiders. I can. All the teams could not handle the things that we were doing. We were so far ahead, Al Davis was so far ahead of other teams, other owners, other coaches. He had us way beyond what you can imagine. They saw that it looked like the Raiders had an advantage of the game situation and then they wanted to change because we had so many great players on the team. They said well it was unfair. Other teams started to complaining it was unfair to have a corner like Willie Brown beating the hell out of somebody and then you have a Jack Tatum, a George Atkinson, Skip Thomas and those kind of guys. They just feel they had a disadvantage going against us so that’s why they changed some of the rules.
Q: Did his hitting overshadow his other skills?
Brown: Yeah. Surely Jack should be in the Hall of Fame. There’s no question, no doubt about it. It’s unfortunate it looks like that he will probably get in now after his death which I hate to see. He should have got in a long time ago. There is so many things that he has done that overshadowed some of the things that people see. When you’re playing back in the middle you have one job to do, that’s stop the long pass right down the middle. He did that better than anybody that I could think of.
By Jerry McDonald - NFL Writer
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 at 4:59 pm in Oakland Raiders.
A transcription of Raiders’ Hall of Fame cornerback Willie Brown talking about the passing of former teammate and Pro Bowl safety Jack Tatum:
Q: Was Jack’s passing a surprise? Had some issues with diabetes, but had he been ill?
Brown: No, not to my knowledge. He was on a list for a kidney transplant for the last two or three months, I guess. I saw him at Fred Biletnikoff’s golf tournament. We hung out the night before, went to some places up there, had a good time together. But was surely a surprise to hear he had passed away this morning because, you know, a great guy, Jack, we played together when he first came to the Raiders. He was my roommate the first year, he hung out with me, I made him do all the dirty work, you know, that needed to be done. But he’s just a great guy, a truly, truly great Raider. You talk about all the guys who are Mr. Raider, and he fit in that same category, as one of the guys who would be Mr. Raider.
Q: Was there a better hitter in the NFL as a defensive back?
Brown: He and Ronnie Lott. You pick them. They are probably the two I ever played against or have seen play the game. None better. Jack took care of me in terms of knowing he’d be in the post position. I didn’t’ worry about guys running posts or slants. I could sit outside because if you go inside you’ll get your head taken off. I just kind of played that way. Jack was the type of guy who was very smart. He studied a lot. He knew things would happen before they would happen.
Q: Did most people realize after time that he was playing by the rules and Stingley was an unfortunate accident?
Brown: Well no, they really don’t. Talk to people in New England, they don’t realize. Talk to the fans here in Oakland and they understand football probably a little bit better than the folks back there because that’s part of the game. Now the impact, the hit, all those things, that could happen to anybody at any given time. Jack, he hit me and tore my biceps in my arm. ‘Don’t worry about me, just take care of whatever you have to take care of.’ He was just that type of player. He wasn’t the type of person who was really out trying to maim anybody or hurt anybody. He was just doing his job. That’s the way he played the game.
Q: Did that hit hurt him in later years?
Brown: I’m sure when you play against a former player or whoever. You want to do your job No. 1. You want to hurt him but you want to hurt him to get him out of the game but hope he’d be back next week. You don’t want to end his career, Jack was that type of guy. You’re not trying to end somebody’s career. He was just doing his job. Unfortunate things happen in football. You see it all the time. You see guys having heat stroke on the football field. That’s just part of life.
Q: What was he like off field?
Brown: Very mild, very quiet. Very, very quiet. Jack didn’t say much so you didn’t bother him. He didn’t say much so you didn’t ask him a whole bunch of questions. You just leave him alone. Very good in the community, not only in the state of California. He did a lot of things back in Ohio and in his hometown Passaic. He did some things in the south. Jack was all over, doing things in the community.
Q: A coach once said guys today don’t know the old-timers but they all knew Jack Tatum?
Brown: No question about it. Because of his reputation in the league over the years. You can’t help but to know him when you talk about good hitters, great hitters, great safeties. Jack Tatum is ranked right up there as the No. 1 guy.
Q: Do you have a favorite hit?
Brown: The one that is favorite to me is in the Super Bowl when we played the Minnesota Vikings. But he hit a former Grambling-ite, Sammy White. I told Sammy, ‘Don’t go inside Sammy.’ That’s probably one of the greatest hits I’ve ever seen.
Q: How intimidated were opponents of him?
Brown: Not only against him but most teams were intimidated when they see the Silver and Black come on the field. That’s how we wanted them to feel. We wanted them to feel like ‘hey, we’re going to kick your ass today.’ The way we walked, the way we talked and the leadership. When you see Al Davis walk along the sideline, that’s kind of intimidating to guys to see him walking up and down the sideline before we started the game. Teams they did, they knew the type of reputation we had back there. Not only with the defensive backs but the linebackers and the defensive line.
Q: In NBA they changed rules because of Wilt, was that case with Jack?
Brown: I can give you 25 changes in the league caused by the Raiders. I can. All the teams could not handle the things that we were doing. We were so far ahead, Al Davis was so far ahead of other teams, other owners, other coaches. He had us way beyond what you can imagine. They saw that it looked like the Raiders had an advantage of the game situation and then they wanted to change because we had so many great players on the team. They said well it was unfair. Other teams started to complaining it was unfair to have a corner like Willie Brown beating the hell out of somebody and then you have a Jack Tatum, a George Atkinson, Skip Thomas and those kind of guys. They just feel they had a disadvantage going against us so that’s why they changed some of the rules.
Q: Did his hitting overshadow his other skills?
Brown: Yeah. Surely Jack should be in the Hall of Fame. There’s no question, no doubt about it. It’s unfortunate it looks like that he will probably get in now after his death which I hate to see. He should have got in a long time ago. There is so many things that he has done that overshadowed some of the things that people see. When you’re playing back in the middle you have one job to do, that’s stop the long pass right down the middle. He did that better than anybody that I could think of.
More Tatum reaction
By Jerry McDonald - NFL Writer
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 at 6:14 pm in Oakland Raiders.
A few more observations from Raiders’ present and past about Jack Tatum, the former Raiders safety who died of heart failure Tuesday at age 61.
– “Seeing him the last two years, it was a blessing to me to know that was what the Raiders were all about. To hear he passed _ bless his family, and God’s going to be with him. It’s not a timetable when the Lord calls you home. It was just his time to go. This day and time, the Raider Nation did take a downfall from one of their soldiers,’’ _ Raiders cornerback Chris Johnson
– “He was all about big hits. Wouldn’t nobody come across the middle. That’s what we’ve got to bring to the secondary. We’ve got to bring that back. We can’t do it exactly like he did because we’d get fined now, but we still have that mentality as he had just be under the rules,’’ _ Johnson on Tatum’s playing style.
– “You try to but you can’t duplicate some of the things he did on the field. The way he hit people, he was a pure intimidator out there,’’ Raiders safety Tyvon Branch.
– “Everybody’s heard of Jack Tatum. (Others), you never hear about them. It’s because of the way he played the game. He leaves behind that legacy of being the assassin. I was watching ESPN Classic one day and they were showing the old hits. You see him popping people’s helmets off. Everybody’s got short arms when they were going across the middle because they knew he was there,’’ Branch on Tatum’s name recognition among young players and playing style.
– “I got to know Jack during my time with the Raiders. Just one of the all-time greats. A very good football player on a lot of those great Raiders teams. He’d come around and watch practice and talk to the young players and was always a sounding board, particularly for the young defensive players. He played the game with a little chip on his shoulder, very physical. A member of the College Football Hall of Fame. It’s really a sad day for all Raiders and for all Raider fans across the country,’’ former Raiders quarterback and Sirius Satellite Radio host Rich Gannon.
By Jerry McDonald - NFL Writer
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 at 6:14 pm in Oakland Raiders.
A few more observations from Raiders’ present and past about Jack Tatum, the former Raiders safety who died of heart failure Tuesday at age 61.
– “Seeing him the last two years, it was a blessing to me to know that was what the Raiders were all about. To hear he passed _ bless his family, and God’s going to be with him. It’s not a timetable when the Lord calls you home. It was just his time to go. This day and time, the Raider Nation did take a downfall from one of their soldiers,’’ _ Raiders cornerback Chris Johnson
– “He was all about big hits. Wouldn’t nobody come across the middle. That’s what we’ve got to bring to the secondary. We’ve got to bring that back. We can’t do it exactly like he did because we’d get fined now, but we still have that mentality as he had just be under the rules,’’ _ Johnson on Tatum’s playing style.
– “You try to but you can’t duplicate some of the things he did on the field. The way he hit people, he was a pure intimidator out there,’’ Raiders safety Tyvon Branch.
– “Everybody’s heard of Jack Tatum. (Others), you never hear about them. It’s because of the way he played the game. He leaves behind that legacy of being the assassin. I was watching ESPN Classic one day and they were showing the old hits. You see him popping people’s helmets off. Everybody’s got short arms when they were going across the middle because they knew he was there,’’ Branch on Tatum’s name recognition among young players and playing style.
– “I got to know Jack during my time with the Raiders. Just one of the all-time greats. A very good football player on a lot of those great Raiders teams. He’d come around and watch practice and talk to the young players and was always a sounding board, particularly for the young defensive players. He played the game with a little chip on his shoulder, very physical. A member of the College Football Hall of Fame. It’s really a sad day for all Raiders and for all Raider fans across the country,’’ former Raiders quarterback and Sirius Satellite Radio host Rich Gannon.
