2. Jack Tatum
In the 1970s, Oakland Raiders safety Jack Tatum embodied the hard-hitting defensive play that was celebrated at the time. Nicknamed “The Assassin”, Tatum helped the Raiders win Super Bowl XI in the 1976 season, knocking the helmet off Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Sammy White in an infamous Super Bowl hit. One year later, Tatum made another hit that altered the course of Patriots’ history.
During an exhibition game in August 1978, Tatum collided with Patriots wide receiver Darryl Stingley as Stingley dove for a catch. The collision caused irreparable damage to Stingley’s spinal cord, and he spent the rest of his life as a quadriplegic. Stingley passed away in 2007 at age 55 due to heart disease and pneumonia complicated by quadriplegia.
At the time of the hit, Stingley had just negotiated a contract that would have made him one of the highest-paid receivers in the NFL, but the contract was unsigned at the time of his injury.
Although the NFL now has rules protecting defenseless players, this wasn’t the case at the time, and there was no penalty called on the play. The play was a horrific accident, one that ate at Tatum for his whole life, according to former coach John Madden. However, Tatum’s three best-selling books invoking his “Assassin” nickname, as well as the unapologetic defense of his playing style at the time, has made it difficult for many Patriots fans to empathize with the sorrow he felt over injuring Stingley.
Other factors complicate the situation, such as the fact that Tatum insisted that he tried to visit Stingley in the hospital but Stingley’s family turned him away. Stingley said he never received any apology from Tatum, but he forgave him for causing the injury. The two never spoke after the injury, and they were never able to reconcile before their deaths.
The story of Jack Tatum and Darryl Stingley is a tragic reminder of the dangers surrounding football, but to Patriots fans, there were many things that Tatum did and said that made an unimaginable situation worse.