Train of Death: Darryl Stingley

On August 12, 1978, in a pre-season game against the Oakland Raiders, Stingley was the victim of a vicious hit by the Raiders' defensive back Jack Tatum. Stingley was running a risky cross pattern known for high injury rates.

Stingley passed away on Thursday. The effects of Stingley's major injuries finally took his life at the age of 55.

"I have relived that moment over and over again," he said in a 1988 interview with The Associated Press. "I was 26 years old at the time and I remember thinking, 'What's going to happen to me? If I live, what am I going to be like?' And then there were all those whys, whys, whys?

"It was only after I stopped asking why, that I was able to regroup and go on with my life," he said.

Jack Tatum always had a reputation as a violent player. The fact that he injured a player was nothing new. Still to this day Tatum shows no remorse for his hit. Then again the hit wasn't illegal or flagrant. Many in the sports community have condemned Tatum for his lack of remorse and unapologetic stance. Stingley had the only view that mattered. When Stingley learned that Tatum had lost his leg due to diabetes he had this to say to the Boston Globe in 2003:

"You can't, as a human being, feel happy about something like that happening to another human being, maybe the natural reaction is to think he got what was coming to him, but I don't accept human nature as our real nature. Human nature teaches us to hate. God teaches us to love."