Remembering Darryl Stingley and Jack Tatum

Stingley never walked again

Former New England Patriots receiver Darryl Stingley finally succumbed to the prison that was his paralysis earlier this week. Stingley died in a Chicago hospital on Thursday after spending the last 29 years as a quadriplegic. His paralysis, the effect of a hit by former Raiders safety Jack Tatum.

Stingley’s story is undoubtedly a sad one. A star athlete cut down in the prime of his career. In passing, Stingley’s death revived all the criticisms of Tatum and the nature of his playing style.

Tatum’s nickname was the “assassin”. A moniker befitting a hard hitting defender that prowled the secondary during the Raiders hay days. Tatum is a legend in Raider land, because of the fear he instilled in opposing receivers who dared to run crossing patterns. There was no other peer that commanded the same amount of respect that Tatum did, yet his legacy will forever be forged by a hit he made in a meaningless pre-season game in 1978.

To this day, Tatum holds no regrets for his decision to level Stingley on that early autumn afternoon. He was doing his job. He was playing with the same ferocity that any modern day NFL defender plays with. Yet, he is considered by some to be a dirty player.

What true NFL fan wouldn’t want Jack Tatum roaming their secondary in his prime? What true fan would want a defender who lets up on an opponent? Those kinds of players don’t last in the NFL.

Tatum need not burden himself with regrets. He didn’t beat up his wife or take performance enhancing drugs. Tatum played the game the way any honest player should play the game. It was a football injury that could happen on any lay to any player. It just happened to involve Tatum.

"I don't think I did anything wrong that I need to apologize for. It was a clean hit”, Tatum would say countless times after the play.

The two never met to reconcile whatever needed reconciling, but Tatum at least made an attempt. He claims to have paid a visit to Stingley in the hospital shortly after the incident, but Stingley’s family refused to let Tatum see the injured receiver. The two never met again.

I remember watching that game with my dad, and seeing the play unfold. It was nothing extraordinary. A guy running across the middle, leaps for the ball and gets popped on the way down. He just didn’t get up.

People would criticize the fact that it was a meaningless pre-season game and that Tatum was overzealous. Anyone that’s ever played the game will tell you that getting hit in the pre-season is no less jarring as a hit in the regular season. Was Tatum supposed to tone it down? Was there an unwritten rule that tackles should be made at 50%?

"Yeah, everybody is supposed to play really hard and then get up at the end like nobody is hurt," Tatum said Friday from his home in Oakland, Calif. "It's unrealistic. If you want to play football for a living, you're going to get injured.

Yet here we are almost 30 years later justifying or defending claims that Tatum was a dirty player. Jack Tatum was no dirty player.

"I feel sorry for what happened to him," said Tatum. "I tried to apologize to him a number of times, but people around him wouldn't let that happen."

That’s the thing. Tatum didn’t owe Stingley anything, much less an apology. It was a football play that ended badly for one person, but has haunted another for 30 years.