Just saw that on the ESPN crawl. The former assassin of the Raiders secondary was 61. Believe it said heart failure.
There was a reason they called him the Assassin. I saw him lay the lumber to the Broncos tight end Riley Odoms. I think it was a Monday night game. Odoms was out cold at impact. When I saw the replays, I got ill.
I wish his family the best, but from what a lot of players who played during his time say and from a lot of highlights you can see of him, he was a dirty player.
I can't believe I'm about to defend a Raider. You have to understand we're talking about NFL football almost 40years ago. What was legal and accepted back then, draws a flag and probably a suspension today. Tatum didn't draw a flag for the hit on Stingley nor did he hear from the NFL office the week after.
True, but a lot of what is illegal today stems from things Tatum and his cohort, George Atkinson, did in their day.
Not sure if this is true or not, but I remember reading somewhere that he never visited Stingley or had any contact with him. Now I know he had no intention of paralyzing him, I always thought that was effed up.
But not every body played like that. There are playoff videos of him clothes-lining after a play after it was over, numerous late hits, etc. The guy was just dirty. Despite it being legal, other players didn't play to end your career. Go to :30 in this video: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJrDYQwwbuY[/media]
