Headslap: The Life and Times of Deacon Jones Hardcover – August 1, 1996

Deacon Jones. If ever there was an icon, this mainstay of the Fearsome Foursome represented a presence, a style, a force.This perennial all-star dominated football in the 1960's in much the same way a great pitcher like Sandy Koufax becomes a huge story in baseball.This comprehensive story of Jones life and times shows the struggles of an African American athlete in the 1960's to both become relevant and brand himself. Deacon Jones emerged from the small town Deep South with raw ability, drive, and a huge chip on his shoulder to redefine the position he played, and to court superstardom. He also had a canny, native intelligence.This came through as a rookie fourteenth round draft pick. When meeting the press, he recognized his given name of David Jones would not set him apart in anyway. ( Apparently, nobody ever told the lead singer of the Monkees that same memo). When they walked over to talk to him, he told them the Deacon had arrived. Sports writers were always searching for good copy, and he rapidly became a source of good quotes.Jones showed speed never before seen in a big man, and played both sides of the football in his first training camp.Fortunately, although he never played for a first rate NFL head coach until George Allen was hired (and never again until reunited with Allen his final season), his coaches did recognize his talent and reward his hard work.This book does allude to his warts. Drug use, infidelity, and drinking are all discussed. But in much heavier measures, discusses his leadership, his principles, and his sacrifice to attain and sustain greatness. It is a long bio, at about 550 pages, and very comprehensive, although it stops at the end of his playing career.Some might consider this a sports classic, and while I feel it was an excellent treatise on a football giant, it falls a little short of a classic.Still, an enjoyable and worthwhile read.

I'm a Rams fan good book.

Loved Deacon and absolutely love this book. Old School football not played by a bunch of disrespectful whiners.

THIS IS A VERY GOOD BOOK. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT, AND THE PRICE COULD NOT BE BEAT. I LIKE HOW HE TELLS ABOUT THE TIMES. FROM THE LATE 50'S THRU THE 70'S AND INTO THE EIGHTYS.

fast shipping, good book

I learned a lot about Deacon Jones life and career. I would say his biography was definitely worth reading. You know right off the bat that Deacon has a big mouth and it often got him in trouble. A large portion of the book does focus on how bad the coaches for the Rams were according to Deacon and not getting the most out of their talent on the roster. The book has some funny moments. I had no idea of the pranks that Merlin Olson played on Deacon those were hilarious.Late in the book time seems to really speed up and you never find out what happens to some of his old Ram's teammates once he was traded to the Chargers and then the Redskins at the end of his career. there is no real gradual decline just a sharp drop off into retirement. You do get the feeling that the coaching under Deacon at the Rams was god awful compared to some of the other coaches like Vince Lombardi, Tom Landry and so on. It seemed like with any halfway decent coach the Rams could have been much better throughout Deacons early to mid career.At the end their is a ton of stats to backup his point that he was the best player at his position of all time. Each era in football is different and it is definitely not apples to apples between each decade. The bottom line is that Deacon made the defense line cool and respectable. Lets face it if your offense is inept then the fans have to be able to cheer for something going right on their team. The strength of that team was the Fearsome Foursome front line. I think Deacon revered George Allen so much is that he turned the Rams into winners after very mediocre to terrible coaching year after year. The Rams of the 60's sounded like the Browns of today always getting high draft picks year after year and then letting them go before they reached their potential thereby never turning your team around. A large part of the responsiblity of losing was all on the owners shoulders.It didn't surprise me one bit that Deacon put in an incredible amount of time and energy in his training doing lots of extra running and focusing his head slap technique to perfection. He was a very driven athlete to succeed. It never says in the book whether he divorced his gold digging 1st wife or if he ever reconnected with his hometown sweetheart. Details like that were just left open about his personal life after football. Did he ever have or want children? Also it doesn't really explain where he left his music career and really jumped into public speaking as a full time job. I would have liked to know what was the best speech he ever gave to a group of people and small things like that.Overall i would rate this book about 3 1/2 to a low 4 stars. It has some good moments but seems overly long in some chapters and very short and condensed in others. I whole heartly agree that the NFL probably was paying it's black players far less than its white stars of the time. From reading other biographies of black players from this time period they all confirm and backup what Deacon states in this book. I think Deacon had a very interesting life and made the most out of it.

Free shipping, not if your from Canada. (add $11.00)Not worth it. Not buying used book anymore