newton_tom_cat

Jack Tatum, hands down

What He Did
In a 1978 preseason game against the New England Patriots. Tatum hit Patriots wide receiver Darryl Stingley as he was leaping for a pass. This badly damaged Stingley's spinal cord and left him paralyzed from the chest down. two have not spoken since that day. Tatum has never apologized for the hit. "I don't think I did anything wrong that I need to apologize for. It was a clean hit."

It Gets Worse - he's tried to profit from the incident
Tatum also never tried talking to Stingley about the incident until he was promoting his autobiography. In 1997, Tatum asked the NFLPA if they could give him a catastrophic injury pension for having to live though the Stingley incident but the league declined after thinking it wasn't a catastrophic injury.

But Something Tells Me There is a God (and he can be mean)
Tatum would eventually face his own disability as his left leg was amputated below the knee in 2003 due to a staph infection caused by diabetes. Tatum also suffered from an arterial blockage that almost cost him his right leg. He currently uses a prosthetic leg to walk around or a wheelchair.

here's the whole bio of this miserable POS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Tatum

Trot

I was 5 yrs. old when the hit happened, but my father has told me the story many times. A fu*cking pre-seasnon game. So sad.

Didn't know about the leg bit; couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

Sean Pa Patriot

Tatum is up there at the top, but Bill Romonowski is not to far behind. And Pac man Jones is making it a close race...

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We going to take it one game at a time

Trot

From what I've heard (and seen on video), Romo isn't in Tatum's league when it comes to hits intended to cause injury. This guy speared *constantly*.

salty

We've already got a couple threads on Borges.

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What an off-season!

primetime

Conrad Dobler and Jack Tatum were definitely the two dirtiest players, though Romo's close.

newton_tom_cat

romo is 2nd, i'll give you that, but a distant 2nd. LB spitting and picking on a small WR, and then sucker punching his own team mate in practise from behind and ending his career. yeah, that's bad. too bad a joey porter-type wasn't on the 9ers during the spitting incident to see how romo would have handled someone his own size. definitely deserved a beating.

Patriotic

In his 1980 biography, Hatem Tatum spelled Stingley's name wrong. Classless.

BTW, in addition to being the most tragic injury in Pats history, the Pats lost their most heartbraking loss on that same field in January, 1977. That place was a nightmare for us.

chunkypony

Im reading the autobiography right now for research for my spinal injuries paper. And I have to say, as much as we may hate him for what he did, he reminds me a bit of a ****ier Rodney. Perhaps a cross between Rodney and Deion Sanders. He just wants to hit hard according to him.

That being said, it was a F-ing preseason game.

Pats726

Tatum without a doubt was the biggest one..RH is not even close!! It was Atkinson and Tatum, part of the thug backfield, that was celebrating with high 5s on the sidelines as the medics were out on the field saving Stingley's life. TOTALLY classless...Oh..the Borges connection?? He was a young writer in Oakland in those days and good friends with them. in the same class....