When somebody dies, it's polite to say something nice. Out of respect, even the reviled are generally granted dispensation when they pass away and a particularly horrible decline elicits extra mercy, but not when it's Jack Tatum, and not when the man being asked is Steve Grogan. "I just can't do it," Grogan coldly said Tuesday afternoon. Tatum, a safety who embodied the Oakland Raiders mystique and was called "The Assassin" for his brutal hits, died of a heart attack at 61. Tatum's most infamous collision occurred when he paralyzed New England Patriots receiver Darryl Stingley in a 1978 preseason game, and Stingley was 55 when he died three years ago from pneumonia complicated by his paralysis. On that fateful night in 1978, Grogan threw to Darryl Stingley on a crossing route in a meaningless game, the ball sailed incomplete, Tatum blasted him head-on anyway and Darryl Stingley didn't get up. "I have a hard time trying to find something nice to say," Grogan said about Tatum. "That bothers me because I'm not like that normally. You may talk to guys that played with him, and they might tell you he was greatest teammate in the world and everybody loved him. "The circumstance that we were involved with, just the way he handled it, that will never come out of any of our mouths or minds." Source: ESPN
Mike Wilbon said he never seem nearly remorseful enough for that either - Wilbon did not give off positive vibes when Tatum was brought up.
