As a safety for the Oakland Raiders, Jack “the Assassin” Tatum made many bone-crunching tackles during his football career. But Tatum is mostly remembered for just one, which occurred during a 1978 preseason game against the New England Patriots. As receiver Darryl Stingley leaped and reached awkwardly for a pass, Tatum delivered a ferocious helmet-to-helmet hit. Horrified fans watched as Stingley crumpled to the ground, his fourth and fifth vertebrae shattered. The hit instantly rendered him a quadriplegic. Tatum never expressed any remorse for the tackle, writing afterward, in the first of three autobiographies, that “my best hits border on felonious assaults. I want to punish the man I’m going after.”
Tatum, who died last week after a long struggle with diabetes—which had claimed his left leg—never spoke to Stingley after that tackle, said the Associated Press. But he often wondered why he was considered the villain of the affair—after all, he said, tackling people was what he was paid to do. The National Football League didn’t punish him for the Stingley tackle, “but it did tighten its rules on violent hits.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
5 blustery cartoons about the Stormy Daniels testimonyCartoons Artists take on gag orders, lurid details, and more
-
The Idea of You review: 'impossible escapism' starring Anne HathawayThe Week Recommends Steamy romcom about a 40-year-old who falls for a boy band singer
-
Crossword: May 11, 2024The Week's daily crossword
-
Benjamin Zephaniah: trailblazing writer who 'took poetry everywhere'Why Everyone's Talking About Remembering the 'radical' wordsmith's 'wit and sense of mischief'
-
Shane MacGowan: the unruly former punk with a literary soulWhy Everyone's Talking About The Pogues frontman died aged 65
-
'Euphoria' star Angus Cloud dies at 25Speed Read
-
Legendary jazz and pop singer Tony Bennett dies at 96Speed Read
-
Martin Amis: literary wunderkind who ‘blazed like a rocket’feature Famed author, essayist and screenwriter died this week aged 73
-
Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian folk legend, is dead at 84Speed Read
-
Barry Humphries obituary: cerebral satirist who created Dame Edna Everagefeature Actor and comedian was best known as the monstrous Melbourne housewife and Sir Les Patterson
-
Mary Quant obituary: pioneering designer who created the 1960s lookfeature One of the most influential fashion designers of the 20th century remembered as the mother of the miniskirt
