Darryl Stingley RIP

Elemenopeo

Patriots receiver paralyzed in '78. Always struck me as an admirable guy.

SI article

zef204

rip Darryl.

scooter729

All because of Jack Tatum giving a cheap-shot hit in a PRE-season game, and never apologizing for it.

cravetopps

honestly, I am surprised this doesn't happen more often in the NFL. Stingley was a great person. He will be missed.

julen23

yea, espn.com said they supposedly were going to meet back up on '96, but stingley changed his mind when he found out it was also to promote tatum's book "silent assassin" or whatever it was called.

was tatum that horny for publicity or what?

julen

Morgoth

It is probably all we need to know about Tatum as a person.

theczar

i actually bought his book back in college and dug it up when this thread appeared.

for the record the book is called "the call me assassin" and it was actually written in an as told by style with an author named bill kushner.

if tatum was playing today he would be pacman jones. in fairness he does have some remorse in his book about the hit on stingley. although more of a sorry he got hurt as opposed sorry i hit him.

i am not a fan of any big 10 team so i can this. ohio state has had some thugs and losers go through that program. tatum. schlicter, clarett just to name a few.

scooter729

They mentioned on the radio today that Jim Tressel at Ohio State has a "Jack Tatum Hit of the Week Award." That just sounds so wrong and un-PC considering his dirty play caused a man to be paralyzed.

jimq112

Great Stingley article here

elsnorto

"Stingley had the fourth and fifth vertebrae in his neck broken. His spinal cord was so severely damaged that he was paralyzed from the chest down, although he did get back enough feeling in one arm that he says today, "I can't throw my grandchildren up in the air like I want to but I can touch them. That's a blessing."

An amazingly gifted receiver and an even more amazing human being. Thank you for sharing this article.

Rest In Peace, Darryl, and my thoughts to those left behind.

Snorto~

softparade

<< <i>They mentioned on the radio today that Jim Tressel at Ohio State has a "Jack Tatum Hit of the Week Award." That just sounds so wrong and un-PC considering his dirty play caused a man to be paralyzed. >>



OK, time for me to be not so PC.

Jack Tatum's hit was NOT a cheap shot. It was a clean hit that unfortunately ended with tragic consequences for Darryl Stingley. This thread just highlites the BUM RAP Tatum has gotten all these years. Say what you want about his behavior years after the injury. Jack Tatum played football LIKE HE WAS TAUGHT. Fast, hard, and sometimes mean. He was and still is an easy target after what happened to Darryl Stingley. He also was never the same player again after the injury as he became much more reserved.

RIP Darryl Stingley

martyogelvie

I remember the hit well. I have seen it a dozen times. Tatum was a big hitter but no bigger than some of the hitters today. I didn't and still don't think it was a cheap shot. Stingley was going across the middle, always dangerous even today. Stingley was in the process of laying out, Tatum came in stading up so the hit was around the head and shoulders of Stingley. Had Stingley not laid out, the hit would have been square and no harm would have been done. It was just a freak accident. I don't think you can blame anyone.

Sure, Tatum should have felt more remorse. It says a lot about his character. He used the incident almost like a prop, especially during his playing days. A lot of players would have become 'gun shy' after such an incident but not Tatum. He used the incident to promote his style of play. I don't want to say he boasted about it, but he sure as hell didin't rebuke anyone using that one hit to proclaim how hard he hit. Sure Tatum hit hard but it wasn't how hard he hit Stinley that really mattered, it was the position he and Stingley were in at the exact moment of impact that made all the difference. I have seen guys get hit a heck of a lot harder than that and walk a way, no problem.

I remember Tatum hitting Earl Campbell harder than anyone I ever seen get hit. Campbell missed the next few games but he walked away.

cravetopps

softparade.....technically, you're right about the hit on Stingley. Fortunately those kinds of hits are illegal now and thankfully so.

Tatum will be remembered more for his lack of remorse. I think people would have "forgiven" him over time (even Stingley) if he had shown even the slightest remorse, regardless of whether what he did was legal or illegal. You break someone's back and end their career, you say you are f'ing sorry. That's just what human beings do or at least should do. Tatum never did any of that, which is too bad. And the fact that Ohio State has a program honoring this guy just gives me one more reason why I can't stand that team.

RonBurgundy

Softparade and martyogelvie sum up the Tatum-Stingley hit quite well. Tatum never felt a need to apologize because it wasn't a cheap shot but rather a clean, hard hit. There have been several cheap shot artists in the NFL since who are much worse than Tatum ever was. Go take a look at the headhunting that Roy Williams does, for example.

And as for this comment from the last poster: "And the fact that Ohio State has a program honoring this guy just gives me one more reason why I can't stand that team." ...........................Let me just say that the irony of Jack Tatum's life that few people know about is that he has been wheelchair bound for a few years, and has lost a leg due to illness. He has done a lot over the last ten years to raise money for diabetes, and to help kids in need. While I won't defend his embrace of the "Assassin" label, the facts are that Tatum was never a headhunter but a guy that played the game as hard as he could within the bounds of it. So go on hating Ohio State all you want and add Jack Tatum to the list of reasons why........but if you care to educate yourself about the entire picture of Tatum as a person you might come away feeling differently.



Ron

cravetopps

"Tatum never felt a need to apologize because it wasn't a cheap shot but rather a clean, hard hit"

And, it resulted in a career ending injury for which any normal human being, regardless of fault, would have apologized.

"You can't, as a human being, feel happy about something like that happening to another human being," ---- Stingley's quote about Tatum's amputation

Too bad Tatum never said this about Stingley.

Carew29

I'll take it that "scooter" never played a day of football or watched any of the NLF Films. Scoot, you might just want to go look up Jack Ham and see a few shots he delivered in the NFL. He made Tatum's look passive. The only reason this is a story is because Darryl ended up paralized. In that day and time that was a clean hit. A 14 year old just got paralized 2 days ago from falling over on his ski board. I will assume that our body, if hit in the right place can result in this happening. Kids have had this happen in the last 2 years at the high school level with more frequency and those hits weren't as vicious as Tatum's. Both players suffered that day. Tatum has to live with this for the rest of his natural life. It would be interesting to know if he appears at Darryls funeral. BTW, the next time you want to watch a cheap shot, tune into your nightly hockey game.

RonBurgundy

Carew 29 is exactly right.

"And, it resulted in a career ending injury for which any normal human being, regardless of fault, would have apologized." If there is no fault, what is there to apologize for? I'm sure Tatum wished that hadn't happened.....what does he have to do, call a presser and fall down crying for the whole world to see? Yeah, maybe today's generation which has been taught to apologize for every single perceived right or wrong would do that, but these guys were old school. I don't see Dick Butkus running around apologizing for every person he injured. Where do you want to draw the line with this? For Tatum to have apologized, publicly or otherwise, would've been tantamount to an admission that he had done something wrong.


Ron

cravetopps

"For Tatum to have apologized, publicly or otherwise, would've been tantamount to an admission that he had done something wrong."

No, Ron, it would have been an admission that he was a compassionate human being and this whole thing would have gone away. This is not about admitting "guilt" and it isn't about being right or wrong; it's about showing respect. Tatum just couldn't step up to the task.

Morgoth

John Madden went to the hospital right after the game, he felt worse about it then Tatum. I think that is being a normal human being. If you hurt somebody like that you generally try and tell them it wasn't on purpose and you feel bad it happened. None of that is what Tatum did but instead used it to promote his own self image. It isn't that other players cheap shotted more or not, Tatums hit caused a man to die prematurely and with extreme disabilities until then. If he says anything now about how bad he had it or felt it does not matter because it's too late.

RonBurgundy

LOL at the two most recent comments. One practically demands an apology, but now says it's too late. The other says an apology would've been about "compassion". Well, fine, so it's about compassion. Tatum goes to the hospital and expresses remorse. The immediate perception is that he did something wrong.

Again I ask, where do we draw the line? Should Pittsburgh's offensive lineman have apologized for the knee-tearing hit on Carson Palmer? Should Sterling Marlin apologize for hitting Dale Earnhardt, resulting in his death? Should the horse that bumped Barbaro at the Preakness apologize? Perhaps Messr. Bonds should issue an apology for all of his transgressions.

Sports are sometimes violent, and things are going to happen. I don't fault competitors for not apologizing when something bad happens; whether or not they should and what kind of person that makes them is not for you or me to judge.



Ron

itzagoner

George Atkinson hit people harder than Tatum did