Very Nice

The NFL announced that the Deacon Jones Award will now be awarded annually to the defender who leads the league in sacks. This is a real nice move to forever honor Deacon Jones. The former Los Angeles Rams great defensive end was the first to use the term "sack" to describe the disposing of quarterbacks. It's only appropriate that his name continue to be associated with sacks.

I tend to think of the old football greats being players from the 1930's and 40's. 101-year old Ace Parker might be the only one of those players left. Even players from the 1950's are getting few in number. Very sad. Deacon Jones entered the league in 1961. Maybe it's more my refusal to accept getting old but I don't think of the 60's as being all that long ago. Jones played through that decade and into the '70's. 74 years of age is far too young to die of natural causes. Deacon Jones was one of the most, if not the most, active links to the football days of a half century ago. He was an incredible Hall of Fame ambassador. He was at every induction ceremony. He was one of the few from his playing days that regularly made it to Canton. He was always there to welcome the new members to his exclusive club. Warren Sapp was so looking forward to that Jones welcome this August. It was difficult to watch Sapp's sadness in talking of the passing of Deacon Jones. I feel it too. I'm going to be attending the Hall of Fame induction ceremony this year. It's also my first visit to Canton. While my main reason for attending is to see Cris Carter receive his much deserved honor. I was also looking forward to seeing all the football greats. Deacon Jones in particular. With this being the 50th Anniversary of the Hall of Fame, there is going to be one of the largest turnouts of football greats that Canton has ever seen. There's a huge void in that group now. Everybody in Canton on August 3rd will feel it.

The game of football has changed so much since the 60's and even the 70's. Jones would have hated playing under the rules today. Those rules would have done nothing but increase his hatred of quarterbacks. He would love the idea of an award in his name honoring the take down of quarterbacks. Thanks to the Deacon Jones Award quarterbacks going forward will again be feeling pain in his name.