John David Tatum (born November 18, 1948) is a former American football defensive back who played ten seasons from 1971 to 1980 for the Oakland Raiders and Houston Oilers in the National Football League. He is popularly known as the "Assassin." He was voted to three Pro Bowls (1973-1975) and won one Super Bowl in his nine seasons with the Raiders.
Tatum earned a reputation as a fierce competitor and was considered as one of the hardest hitters ever to play the game. In a recent poll by Sports Illustrated on the century's best defensive backs, Tatum finished with eight percent of the vote. He is best known for a tackle he made against former New England Patriots wide receiver Darryl Stingley in a 1978 game that paralyzed Stingley from the chest down and for his involvement in the notorious Immaculate Reception play during a playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
COLLEGE CAREER
Tatum was born in Cherryville, North Carolina and grew up in Passaic, New Jersey, where he had little interest in playing sports in his early years. Tatum did not start playing football until he entered his sophomore year in Passaic High School, where he played as a running back, fullback and defensive back, where he won first-team All-State and became a high school All-American as a high school senior. In 1999, the New Jersey Star-Ledger named Tatum as one of New Jersey's top ten defensive players of the century. Tatum visited a number of universities before starting his collegiate career on the Ohio State University Buckeyes team, where he was recruited as a running back by former assistant coach Lou Holtz. However, he switched to defensive back during his freshman season and was also used occasionally as a linebacker because of his hitting skills and was used by the Buckeyes to cover the opposing team's best wide receiver.
He was a first team All-Big Ten in 1968, 1969 and 1970. In 1969 and 1970 he was a unanimous All American. In 1970 he was selected as the National Defensive Player of the Year and was among the top vote getters for the Heisman Trophy which is given to the nation's best college football player.<SUP class=reference id=_ref-5>[6]</SUP> Tatum helped lead the Buckeyes to a 27-2 record in his three seasons as a starter, with two national championship appearances and one national championship win in 1968, Tatum's first season with the team.
In 2001, Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel instituted the "Jack Tatum Hit of the Week Award," given to the player who had the most impressive defensive hit of the game. In 2005, Tatum was an inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame and he is also a member of the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame.
NFL CAREER
Tatum was drafted by the Oakland Raiders as the 19th pick in the first round of the 1971 NFL Draft to replace former Oakland safety, Dave Grayson, who retired after the 1970 season. A few weeks later, Tatum signed a three year, six figure contract with a fifty thousand dollar-signing bonus. When the contract was released to the press, there was a statement that state that the Raiders hired the Assassin, hence his nickname. Tatum then played his first professional game against the Baltimore Colts, where he tackled and knocked out the Colts' former tight ends John Mackey and Tom Mitchell. Soon after the game, sportswriters started to compare him to former Chicago Bears linebacker Dick Butkus because of his hard-hitting skills and he quickly became the starting free safety in his rookie year.
Tatum was involved in one of the most famous plays in National Football League History, the Immaculate Reception, during a 1972 playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. With 22 seconds left in the game, Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw threw a pass to running back John Fuqua. Tatum tackled Fuqua and the ball was knocked loose, collided with Fuqua and Tatum into Steelers running back Franco Harris's arms, who ran it down 42 yards for a game winning touchdown.
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In one of the most lasting images from Super Bowl XI, Tatum knocked the helmet off Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Sammy White. This is considered as one of the biggest hits in Super Bowl history. But his most famous hit was in a 1978 preseason game against the New England Patriots. Tatum hit Patriots wide receiver Darryl Stingley as he was leaping for a pass. This badly damaged Stingley's spinal cord and left him paralyzed from the chest down. Tatum claims that he attempted to visit Stingley in the hospital soon after the hit but was forbidden by Stingley's family. The two have not spoken since that day. Tatum has never apologized for the hit. "I don't think I did anything wrong that I need to apologize for. It was a clean hit." Neither the NFL nor Stingley have taken action against Tatum. Tatum also never tried talking to Stingley about the incident until he was promoting his autobiography. In 1997, Tatum asked the NFLPA if they could give him a catastrophic injury pension for having to live though the Stingley incident but the league declined after thinking it wasn't a catastrophic injury.<SUP class=reference id=_ref-15>[16]</SUP> There were also a few attempts to get Tatum and Stingley together again, including one by Deion Sanders for a CBS pregame show, but Tatum declined.
Tatum was traded to the Houston Oilers for running back Kenny King and two draft choices in the 1980 NFL Draft. He finished his pro career with them in 1980, when he played all sixteen games that season, and recorded a career-high seven interceptions to finish with a career total of 37, which he returned for 736 yards. He also recovered nine fumbles in his career, returning them for 164 yards. Tatum also holds the record for the longest fumble return in NFL history. In a 1972 game against the Green Bay Packers, he returned a fumble 104 yards for a touchdown which could have been called back because of an officiating error. The record has since been tied by Aeneas Williams.
AFTER FOOTBALL
After being released by the Oilers after the 1980 season, Tatum retired. After his playing career ended, Tatum became a land developer and moved into the real-estate business becoming a part-owner of a restaurant in Pittsburg, California. Tatum also married, and had three children. He wrote three best-selling books, They Call me Assassin in 1980, They Still Call Me Assassin in 1989, and Final Confessions of NFL Assassin Jack Tatum in 1996.
Tatum would eventually face his own disability as his left leg was amputated below the knee in 2003 due to a staph infection caused by diabetes. Tatum also suffered from an arterial blockage that almost cost him his right leg. He currently uses a prosthetic leg to walk around or a wheelchair. Tatum currently works in increasing awareness of diabetes. To facilitate this goal, he created the Ohio-based Jack Tatum Fund for Youthful Diabetes, which finances diabetes research.
Prior to Super Bowl XL, ESPN Andrea Kremer did an interview with Tatum comfirming that he still has few regrets about paralyzing Stingley.
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