I was watching some old clips of Jack Tatum the other day, one of the most feared defensive backs in the history of the NFL and what I saw kind of surprised me. You always here these old school guys railing against the rules punishing hits to the head with this "in my day, blah blah blah," bullshit as though it's some kind of justification for a style of play that could leave someone crippled.
What I found interesting was in spite of such claims by the old timers, most of Tatum's hits were perfectly legal. There were a few cheapies for sure that would elicit fines in today's NFL, but mostly he just had a knack for absolutely crushing a guy shoulder on shoulder without any contact to the head most of the time. What changed that makes dangerous hits so common today?
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