David "Deacon" Jones did more than perhaps any other player to make modern-day pro football fans acutely aware of the fast, tough and mobile defensive linemen who existed to make life miserable for National Football League quarterbacks.
Jones started his NFL career as an obscure 14th-round draft pick of the 1961 Los Angeles Rams but he quickly grabbed the headlines with the kind of crowd-pleasing play previously displayed only by offensive ball-handlers.
He excelled in the pro football world for 14 seasons and many insist he was the finest defensive end ever. Whether he was the very best, or merely one of the best, will never be totally determined.
But with his election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1980, Jones was assured of a permanent place among the game's immortals. Pro football's most prestigious recognition came to Deacon in his first year of eligibility.
He was joined in the Class of 1980 by three other stars who played in the 1960s and early 1970s - cornerback Herb Adderley, defensive tackle Bob Lilly, and center Jim Otto. The four men were formally inducted on the front steps of the Pro Football Hall of Fame on August 2, 1980.
Later that same day, the Green Bay Packers and San Diego Chargers faced each other in the annual AFC-NFC Hall of Fame game. The preseason classic became one of the few games ever canceled in NFL history when, with the score tied 0-0, the game was called with 5:29 remaining when a violent storm blew into Canton's Fawcett Stadium.
The Deacon was as innovative, quick thinking and flamboyant out of uniform as he was fabulous on the field. Even before he became a great star, he was determined to attract his share of attention.
One of his first acts as a Rams rookie was to put aside his given name "David" and substitute a nickname "Deacon".
"No one would remember a player named David Jones - there are a thousand David Joneses in the phone book," he reasoned. "I picked out Deacon because it has a religious connotation and it would be remembered in the violent pro football world. When the Rams sent out my player questionnaire, I simply listed my name as Deacon Jones. From then on, that's what I was."
Jones also coined the term "sack" now commonly used to describe the tackling of the passer behind the line of scrimmage. Even in his college years, Jones had had some success in that art, but it was hard to capture it in a headline.
"We needed a shorter term" Jones pointed out. "I gave it some thought and came up with the term 'sack'. Like, you know, you sack a city - you devastate it. And the word is so short you can even get Deacon in front of Jones in some headlines."
Coming from a small college with an even smaller coaching staff, Jones had literally hundreds of things to learn. Fortunately, for the Rams he was a fast learner and soon became a master at the sacking business.
Noted for his intense desire, even in practice, the 6'5", 272-pound Jones became one of the first defensive ends to go all out from sideline to sideline on every play.
"It used to be that the big defensive linemen just sat in one place and waited for the play to come to them," Deacon noted. "But mobility is what makes a football player exciting so I made myself exciting as hell."
Sometimes tabbed as the "Secretary of Defense," Jones felt his most creative innovation was the head slap, since outlawed, where the pass rusher sharply slapped the blocker's helmet at the snap of the ball in an effort to get an extra step needed to break free.
"The best blocker I ever worked against was Charlie Cowan and he was on my own team," Jones recalls. "He helped me work out the head slap. For years, we practiced a half hour after practice every day on just the head slap."
As dedicated as Deacon was to what he saw as "a game of civilized violence," he was also noted for his extremely clean play. Once he even sustained a minor ankle injury himself rather than hit a quarterback who had just released a ball.
"I'm against cheap shots," Jones proclaimed. "You should play clean and shoot square. If you play the game right, you can protect yourself from physical harm."
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