It started as just an ordinary preseason game. But one play made it anything but ordinary. The Oakland Raiders were playing the New England Patriots on August 12, 1978. Patriots wide receiver Darryl Stingley ran a slant pattern across the middle that left him an easy mark as he reached for an overthrown pass. Waiting for him was defensive back Jack Tatum, who considered himself the hardest hitter in football, meaner than the Chicago Bears' Dick Butkus, and the greatest outlaw to wear Oakland's villainous silver and black. Tatum considered two alternatives. "I could have attempted to intercept," he recalled in his book They Call Me Assassin, "but because of what the owners expect of me when they give me my paycheck, I automatically reacted to the situation by going for an intimidating hit." He once said, "My best hits border on felonious

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