“The Assassin” Jack Tatum dies at 61

The man we all loved and some loved to hate…..

He might just be the hardest hitting man, in the history of the NFL…..

Jack Tatum could take down any opponent and did that very thing for many years, first in college with Ohio State and then in the pros with the Oakland Raiders and the Houston Oilers….

I loved this guy, because he could serve up the pain and he did it legally, in the National Football League….(I followed his career in college and in the pros and I thought he did his job the right way, mean and dirty….The only way to survive in football and I say that, with due respect to Darryl Stingley…..)

Let’s look back and the life and times of the man they called, “The Assassin”……

from www.espn.com:

COLUMBUS, Ohio — He was called the “Assassin.”

Jack Tatum was one of the hardest hitters in the NFL, a Pro Bowl safety who intimidated opposing players with bone-jarring tackles that helped make his Oakland Raiders one of the toughest teams of its era.

Jack Tatum spent nine years in the NFL, delivering such vicious hits that he earned the nickname “The Assassin.”

He’s also a player who will always be tied to one of the game’s most tragic moments — a hit in a preseason game that left New England Patriots receiver Darryl Stingley paralyzed from the neck down.

Tatum died Tuesday at age 61 in an Oakland hospital. The cause was a massive heart attack, according to friend and former Ohio State teammate John Hicks. Tatum had battled diabetes and other health problems for years, Hicks said.

The collision with Stingley happened Aug. 12, 1978, at Oakland Coliseum.

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