Posted on 04/05/2007 4:48:57 PM PDT by buccaneer81
Darryl Stingley dies in Chicago
Thursday, April 5, 2007 - Updated: 02:37 PM EST
CHICAGO - Darryl Stingley, paralyzed after a vicious hit during an NFL exhibition game nearly 30 years ago, died Thursday. He was 55.
(Excerpt) Read more at patriots.bostonherald.com ...
RIP Darryl.
I still remember the film clip of the hit.Very ugly stuff. Very sad.
May he rest in peace. Prayers for his family.
I met Mr. Tatum years ago at an Oakland sports shop. I think he had a book out called “They called me assassin”.
And if I recall, the hit was in an EXHIBITION game. Makes it even more incomprehensible.
Read about Daryl. He got past his issue and rose up. 55 is way too young to leave, but Godspeed to a good soul.
Sad news, indeed. Didn’t Stingley’s son play for a top college team in the last few years?
Just curious, why would you call this hit and its consequence “incomprehensible”?
It was a legal, tremendous, vicious football hit. Yes it was in an exhibition. So what? Football is football! Believe me, players are playing just as hard as in a real game (sometimes harder cause a lot of guys are fighting for their football life). Shit happens when players converge like this, whether game, practice, exhibition, or whatever.
Everyone who plays knows it could happen to them anytime in the course of a game or practice. Nobody wants what happened to Stingley (and others) to happen at the their hands—not even Tatum who was definitely one of the greatest, hardest hitters of all time. But please have no doubt about it—they still want to be the baddest MFers on the field.
That’s football. It can’t be any more comprehensible in my opinion.
“That’s football. It can’t be any more comprehensible in my opinion.”
And that’s why I stopped watching or caring about pro football.
I go to the local high school game every Friday night in the fall, and follow Div III football (I’ve attended the national championship games for the last 5 years). But I no longer care for “big time” college or pro football.
Asked about it later Tatum just laughed. If "that's football" then you juvenile macho children can have it.
I was watching that game, the hit was legal but a bit out of line, the ball had gone past he could have eased up some instead of going full bore into a vulnerable players neck like that, it was a message hit. Then again now adays I’ve seen ref’s pull quarterbacks aside and let them know it’s maybe not such a good idea to lead a reciever into that kind of coverage. Football changed that day in august.
Plus Tatum never showed any remorse or even compassion.
“Plus Tatum never showed any remorse or even compassion.”
In my estimation, that makes the whole tragedy even MORE horrible.
It’s an unfortunate situation. However I don’t see anything heinous about the hit. If you watch it in slow mo on the youtube film...2 things stick out to me.
The QB watches the intended WR the whole time, he never looks off the Safety, which any pro QB should be doing.
The WR knows he is vulnerable and knows he’s playing aginst one of the hardest hitting secondaries in the NFL. He anticipates and ducks his head down, makng his neck extremely vulnerable. You never duck your head in football.
Football is a violent collision sport and there is alot of danger involved. Prayers out to Darrl Stingley and his family. It’s just a horrible thing.
Perhaps you might take a lesson from some of us "juvenile macho children" who know the difference between reality and old wive's tales.
I saw interviews game day (just after) and even years later (on NFL Films) when the extent of the injury was fully known, and Tatum was NOT laughing. Not in the slightest. Not either time.
You may have heard from some old wife that he was laughing, but probably you just made it up to suit your paradigm of what you believe football is about.
To give you the benefit of the doubt, maybe you remembered the George Atkinson interview (another Raider--one of the so-called "criminal element" in pro football in the early 80's) who laughed after being told he was being fined for a vicious cheapshot on Lynn Swann.
Or Jack Lambert saying that maybe QB's should be made to wear dresses.
I'm not defending the few Ray Lewis-type psychotic assholes of the pro football world (same percentage of pschotics as in any business or organization), but no one wants to hurt someone that badly in a football game.
Tatum expressed much remorse both times I saw him speak on the subject. He also said, hey that's football...
Clean hit, nominally, but why lay out a vulnerable receiver in a stupid PRESEASON game?
Either one should have pulled off, particularly Tatum.
Has John Madden ever been asked about it?
Indeed. Without casting more aspersion on Jack Tatum, you might notice in the replay how 'checked up' Stingley was by the corner. No way they get away with that now. And as another poster said, Steve Grogan (I think it was) should have looked Tatum off. WR and QB are still synchronizing routes in the preseason (which should be reduced, IMHO, and toss the damned Pro Bowl), and it was a tragic accident, resplendent with personalities in black and white hats adorned. God please go with the Stingley family, and I think even a bad-ass like Jack Tatum has reconciled.
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