Deacon Jones

David D. "Deacon" Jones (December 9, 1938 – June 3, 2013) was an American professional football player who was a defensive end in the National Football League (NFL) for the Los Angeles Rams, San Diego Chargers, and the Washington Redskins. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1980.

Jones specialized in quarterback "sacks", a term that he coined. Nicknamed "the Secretary of Defense", Jones is considered one of the greatest defensive players ever. The ''Los Angeles Times'' called Jones "most valuable Ram of all time," and former Rams head coach George Allen called him the "greatest defensive end of modern football".

Early life

Jones was born in Eatonville, Florida, and lived in a four-bedroom house with his family of ten. Jones attended Hungerford High School, where he played football, baseball, and basketball. During high school, Jones developed a lump in his thigh and learned that it was a tumor; he had surgery to remove it by Dr. Ron Alegria.

Late in life, Jones told ''The San Diego Union-Tribune'' that when he was 14 years old, he witnessed a carload of white teenagers laughingly hit an elderly black woman with a watermelon. The woman died days later from the injury, and Jones recalls that there was never a police investigation. "Unlike many black people then, I was determined not to be what society said I was," Jones later recounted. "Thank God I had the ability to play a violent game like football. It gave me an outlet for the anger in my heart."

College career

Jones' college football career consisted of a year at South Carolina State University in 1958, followed by a year of inactivity in 1959 and a final season at Mississippi Vocational College, now known as Mississippi Valley State University, in 1960.

South Carolina State revoked Jones' scholarship after they learned that he participated in a protest during the Civil Rights Movement. However, one of the assistant football coaches at South Carolina State was leaving to coach at Mississippi Vocational, and told Jones and some of the other African-American players that he could get them scholarships at the new school. While he was playing at Mississippi Vocational, he and his African-American teammates had to sleep in cots in the opposing team's gym because motels would not take them on numerous occasions.

Professional career

Due to a lack of television coverage and modern scouting networks, Jones was largely overlooked during his college career. According to an NFL Films interview with writer Ray Didinger, "Deacon was discovered kinda by accident. The Rams were scouting some running backs and they found this defensive tackle who was outrunning the running backs that they were scouting." Jones was drafted in the 14th round of the 1961 NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Rams. He then earned a starting role as a defensive end and teamed with tackle Merlin Olsen to give Los Angeles a perennial All-Pro left side of the defensive line. He became a part of the Fearsome Foursome defensive line of the Rams (along with Lamar Lundy, Rosey Grier, and Olsen), which is now considered to have been one of the best defensive lines of all time.

Jones won consensus All-Pro honors five straight years from 1965 through 1969 and was second-team All-Pro in 1964, 1970, and 1972. He was also in seven straight Pro Bowls, from 1964 to 1970, and was selected to an eighth after the 1972 season with the San Diego Chargers. He was voted the team's Outstanding Defensive Lineman by the Los Angeles Rams Alumni in 1962, '64, '65, and '66. In 1971, Jones suffered a severely sprained arch, which caused him to miss four starts, and he ended the season with 4½ sacks, his career-low to that point.

Jones was traded along with Lee White and Greg Wojcik from the Rams to the San Diego Chargers for Jeff Staggs, a second-rounder in 1972 (30th overall—Jim Bertelsen) and a second and third-rounder in 1973 (31st and 60th overall—Cullen Bryant and Tim Stokes respectively) on January 29, 1972. He was named San Diego's defensive captain and led all Chargers' defensive linemen in tackles and won a berth on the AFC Pro Bowl squad. He concluded his career with the Washington Redskins in 1974. In the final game of his NFL career, the Redskins allowed him to kick the point-after-touchdown for the game's last score. Along the way, Jones was named the Associated Press NFL Defensive Player of the Week four times: week 14, 1967; week 12, 1968; week 11, 1969; and week 10, 1970.

An extremely durable player, Jones missed only six games of a possible 196 regular-season encounters in his 14 National Football League seasons.

Sacks

Jones was considered by many to revolutionize the position of defensive end. He was credited with coining the phrase "sacking the quarterback". In 1999, Jones provided a ''Los Angeles Times'' reporter with some detailed imagery about his forte: "You take all the offensive linemen and put them in a burlap bag, and then you take a baseball bat and beat on the bag. You're sacking them, you're bagging them. And that’s what you're doing with a quarterback."

What separated Jones from every other defensive end was his speed and his ability to make tackles from sideline to sideline, which was unheard of in his time. He also was the first pass rusher to use the head slap, a move that he said was, "to give myself an initial head start on the pass rush, in other words an extra step. Because anytime you go upside a man's head … or a woman; they may have a tendency to blink they iceyes or close they eyes. And that's all I needed." "The head slap was not my invention, but Rembrandt, of course, did not invent painting. The quickness of my hands and the length of my arms, it was perfect for me. It was the greatest thing I ever did, and when I left the game, they outlawed it."

''Pro Football Weekly'' reported he accumulated sacks over his career, which would be third on the all-time sack list. (Jones would have ranked first all-time at the time of his retirement, and since has been surpassed by two fellow Hall of Famers Bruce Smith and Reggie White.)

In 1967, Jones had sacks in only 14 games; he tallied 22 sacks in 14 games the following year. If official, this would have stood as an NFL record until Harvey Martin's 1977 campaign in which he totaled 23 sacks. This number was also equaled by Al Baker a year later. (The term "sack" had not yet been coined at the time, and official sack statistics were not recorded by the NFL until 1982.)

(Source: Los Angeles Rams, San Diego Chargers and Washington Redskins Media Guides)

After football

Acting

Jones worked as a television actor, and appeared in numerous TV programs since the 1970s, most often appearing in cameo roles. He appeared in an episode of ''The Odd Couple'' where he and Oscar were in a television commercial selling shaving products. He appeared on ''The Brady Bunch'', and in a ''Bewitched'' episode in 1969, he played a guard to the Giant's castle in " Sam & the Beanstalk". Jones also played himself on an episode of ''Wonder Woman'' in 1978.

In 1978, he played a Viking named Thall in '' The Norseman''. Fellow Hall of Famer Fred Biletnikoff joined Jones in the film, also portraying a Norseman. That same year, Jones portrayed a fierce defensive lineman named Gorman in the film '' Heaven Can Wait''.

In the series ''G vs E'', he played himself, but as an agent of "The Corps". He also played a role in the hit show, '' ALF'', where he played a father figure to Alf.

Broadcasting

Jones served as a color analyst for Rams broadcasts on KMPC radio in the 1994 season, teaming with Steve Physioc and Jack Snow. In 1998, shortly before Super Bowl XXXII between the Denver Broncos and Green Bay Packers, Jones correctly predicted the Broncos, 11 1/2 point underdogs, would win the game and Terrell Davis would be named MVP of the game.

Business

Jones worked for many companies, including the Miller Brewing Company, Haggar Clothing, Pacific Coast Medical Enterprises, and Epson America, and represented the NFL and Champion Products as spokesman for their Throwback campaigns. Jones was also chairman for AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals in their national hypertension awareness program.

Community involvement

NFL.com reported that Jones made several trips to Iraq to visit the U. S. military.

Jones served as the president and CEO of the Deacon Jones Foundation, an organization he founded in 1997 "to assist young people and the communities in which they live with a comprehensive program that includes education, mentoring, corporate internship, and community service."

Bringing the NFL back to Los Angeles

Jones was one of the many former L.A. Rams players who disliked the team's controversial relocation to St. Louis in 1995. He was adamant in interviews and appearances that he played for Los Angeles, not St. Louis, and considered the Rams franchise there a different team that should have a different name. He participated in many grassroots efforts to bring NFL football back to L.A. and also voiced support on many new stadium proposals . The Rams eventually returned to Los Angeles in 2016 after Jones had died.

Honors

He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 1980, and was named to the NFL's 75th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1994. In 1999, he was ranked number 13 on ''The Sporting News'' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players, the highest-ranked player to have played for the Rams franchise, the highest-ranked defensive end, and the second-ranked defensive lineman behind Bob Lilly. The same year, he was named by ''Sports Illustrated'' as the "Defensive End of the Century". In 2010, he was named to the inaugural class of the Black College Football Hall of Fame.

* 1980 – Elected to South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame
* 1981 – Voted to the Central Florida Sports Hall of Fame
* 1983 – Elected to the Florida Sports Hall of Fame
* 1999 – Recipient of the Gale Sayers Lifetime Spirit Achievement Award
* 1999 – Awarded "The Order of the Leather Helmet" by the NFL Alumni Organization, their highest honor
* 2001 – Winner of the NFL Alumni Spirit Award for community service
* 2005 – Recipient of the Junior Seau Foundation "Legend of the Year Award"
* 2007 – Named to the Florida High School Association All-Century Team which selected the Top 33 players in the 100-year history of high school football in Florida's history
* 2009 – His number 75 was retired by the Rams.
* 2013 – An award for the league leader in sacks is named in his honor and awarded for the first time. Robert Mathis of the Indianapolis Colts was the inaugural award winner.

Personal life

Jones stated that he gave himself the nickname Deacon after joining the Rams because too many David Joneses were in the local phone book. "Football is a violent world and Deacon has a religious connotation," he told the ''Los Angeles Times'' in 1980. "I thought a name like that would be remembered."

Deacon Jones's wife Elizabeth is the chief operating and financial officer of the Deacon Jones Foundation, based in Anaheim Hills, California, the community in which the couple lived.

Jones was a rhythm and blues singer during his football days, and was backed by the band Nightshift, which later became the group War. Jones sang onstage with Ray Charles, performed on ''The Hollywood Palace'' in 1967 and 1968, and on ''The Merv Griffin Show'' in 1970. Jones was the inspiration for the name of the 1977 song "Deacon Blues" by Steely Dan.

Death

On June 3, 2013, Jones died at 74 of natural causes after suffering from lung cancer and heart disease at his home in Anaheim Hills, California. Jones's death left Rosey Grier as the last surviving member of the Fearsome Foursome, the L.A. Rams defensive line which is widely considered the best such unit in the history of the NFL. Of the former defensive standout, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said, "Even with his fellow Hall of Famers, Deacon Jones held a special status. He was an icon among the icons." Washington Redskins General Manager Bruce Allen, son of Jones's longtime coach George Allen, called him "one of the greatest players in NFL history. Off the field... a true giant." ''Sports Illustrated'' columnist Peter King noted at his death that Jones had a profound effect on the way defense was played in the NFL and cited the influence on such later NFL stars as Lawrence Taylor, Deion Sanders, and Michael Strahan. As a tribute to Jones, the NFL created the Deacon Jones Award, which will be given annually to the league leader in sacks.

References

External links

Deacon Jones Foundation
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Deacon
1938 births
2013 deaths
African-American players of American football
African-American sports announcers
African-American sports journalists
American Conference Pro Bowl players
American football defensive ends
American rhythm and blues singers
Deaths from lung cancer in California
Los Angeles Rams announcers
Los Angeles Rams players
Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils football players
National Conference Pro Bowl players
National Football League announcers
People from Anaheim Hills, California
People from Eatonville, Florida
Players of American football from Florida
Players of American football from Anaheim, California
Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees
San Diego Chargers players
South Carolina State Bulldogs football players
Sportspeople from Orange County, Florida
War (American band) members
Washington Redskins players
Western Conference Pro Bowl players
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