Paralyzed ex-NFL Stingley passes away at 55

[garetjax]

Football is an intense, high impact sport. The injuries received are considered by many to be the drawbacks from playing it. As with all things, there are the high points in football, the low points, and then the sad points. This is a sad point. Here's a snippet of the story. The full article can be read HERE. Click HERE to see the hit Tatum put on Stingley which paralyzed him for the rest of his life.

Nearly 29 years after the fact and NFL fans are still missing the point.
It wasn't Jack Tatum who owed Darryl Stingley an apology. It was the football-crazed world that owed Stingley.

Stingley's death this week at age 55 is another reminder of that inconvenient truth. During an exhibition game in 1978, Tatum, then a safety with the Oakland Raiders, hit New England Patriots wide receiver Stingley. The hit left Stingley paralyzed for the remainder of his life.

In the time since, Tatum's name has become synonymous with cheap hits, leading to the ever-increasing rules about what is legal. Never mind the fact that Tatum had been trained for years to dish out such hits. And never mind the fact that to this day, hits like those are what the fans love to see. Those bone-jarring hits are popularized by everything from video games to ESPN's insipid "Jacked Up" segment.

Despite those realities, Tatum has been vilified because of the result. Tatum was reminded this week about that when Stingley's death hit the news and regurgitated all the old arguments.