Scroll down and see SJ's tribute to David "Deacon" Jones. I've seen longer tributes to Deacon, but none that capture the greatness of the man with the respect and perspective SJ brings
I watched Deacon play a couple of times in person - film clips and the images on our old black-and-white TV of the day couldn'ttell you the sort of presence and impact he had. And while the rest of the defense was huddled, the Rams DL - Deacon, Merlin, Rosey Grier, and Lamar Lundy (whose greatness was overshadowed by his teammates) just stood there, Merlin on one foot, hands on hips, Rosey just being huge, and Deacon... pacing a little, then sometimes glowering at the man who drew the short straw and had to face him.
In the interview, SJ found a clip where Deacon talks of his speed. He was uncanny fast - blows the doors off the supposition that today's athletes are faster.
Deacon Jones ran a hand-timed 4.7 forty. From a standing start. On grass. In pads and cleats. He ran faster wind sprints than Jaguar John Arnett. (More on Arnett later.)
Against Green Bay (on TV) I once waatched him play the Lombardi sweep
going the other way by running from the
opposite side of the line, and catching Paul Hornung from behinds. For a loss.
I saw a Deacon tribute once where the narrator had to be equivocal and state that Deacon could - and did - play dirty. This was while footage on the screen showed Deacon grabbing some guy by the face mask from the front, at arm's length, and shaking him like a dog shakes a chew toy. That's the impression the clip left.
I recalled seeing the whole game on TV, and the guy he could have whiplashed with that move had been facemasking Deacon, holding him, doing all he could to slow him down all game. Deacon merely retaliated in kind. The other guy must have reconsidered; he played clean and so did Deacon for the rest of the game, in which Deacon raised his usual havoc.
Ralph Neely was an OT for the Cowboys - highly regarded in his day but he couldn't handle Deacon. Neely was a notorious holder and against Deacon he held on nearly every play.
Deacon's antidote: the headslap. On one play, late in the game against the Cowboys, Deacon had enough. He lunged out of his stance, and smacked Neely with an extra-hard left hook, open-handed of course, right on the earhole, and went around Neely. I think he got Staubach on that play - not sure.
On the very next snap, in a set of moves that took barely a second, he lunged out of his stance again and Neely had his right arm up to guard agains Deacon's left. Deacon feinted with the left and then delivered a slap that caught Neely was leaning into Deacon's right hand - Neely dropped his guard for the quick one-two left slap that followed, and then with a split second pause, Deacon hit him again with the right. Bip-bip...BIP!
I sat on the sofa and laughed. There was a note of justice and savage humor in it. Neely deserved it. Deacon delivered. Heh-heh-heh...
Deacon then went around Neely on the right side but his delay at the line kept him from reaching the quarterback. Neely just stood there, reeling, both hands on his helmet, staggering around, dizzy, Neely quit holding and Deacon ate his lunch for the rest of the game, with only an occasional head slap to keep Neely in line. Neely's inner ears on both sides weren't registering which direction was "up" - both ears full of compressed air noise will do that to you.
At some point in that era Deacon said in an interview when asked about players going beyond the rules to neutralize him. Deacon's answer was something like, "If you play like that, my goal is to put you in the hospital."
Understood.
I'd have to agree with Steven Jackson: Deacon Jones was the greatest NFL lineman of all time. My personal second, third and fourth places, Donald, Olsen, and Youngblood. You pick the order.
