Headslap: The Life and Times of Deacon Jones

by John Klawitter

Book Overview

"This book's going to raise a howl," promises Deacon Jones. "You wait and see "From a small rural town in Florida to the NFL Hall of Fame, this is the story of Deacon's rise to the top of the heap in the National Football League. "Headslap" refers to the lightning move popularized by Jones in the early days of the game, when a player could rattle the cage (or at least the helmet) of a blocker by belting him alongside the head. And Deacon did this...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1573920827
• ISBN13: 9781573920827
• Release Date: August 1996
• Publisher: Prometheus Books
• Length: 578 Pages
• Weight: 2.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.8" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Good book, important book, but apparently flawed

I hadn't expected to enjoy the account of Jones' early days leading up to his pro football career. But that was the best part of the book. Once I got halfway through his career I started skipping large chunks of text. The football tales were interesting, but not engrossing. What makes the book worthwhile to me is the account of Jones' struggle with racism through most of his life, including his early years in the NFL. That said, I was disappointed to see that the book is written in semi-fiction style in that whole conversations that were never taped or even could have been taped are reproduced as if they were transcribed by a stenographer. It seems obvious that the authors made it up. That doesn't necessarily mean that the conversations presented don't accurately reflect what was said at the time. But the authors don't even acknowledge that they have put words in people's mouths. In the same vein, I got the impression that some of the stories of Jones' life, as presented in the book, are apocryphal, or at least based mainly on Jones' memory. For example, one story has Jones meeting Jackie Robinson as a teenager. He had just seen a Dodgers game and witnessed a white player step on Robinson's hand. He said something to Robinson along the lines of

HeadSlap

I have idolized Deacon Jones all of my life, and this book really made The Deacon out to be everything I thought he was. The reason I liked the book so much was the fact that it not only covered his unrealistically impressive football career, but also covered his entire life from childhood all the way through his retirement from the NFL. It really gave you a real feel of the hard, grueling times he went through back in the days of racism and presidium. I recommend this book for anyone, even those who are not interested in football, fore is a book far from only being about football, but a book of struggle, anger, distress, and overcoming all obstacles in order to succeed greatly in life.

This is a not a self-serving biography. I learned a lot.

I met Deacon Jones about two months after I read this book. I felt like I had actually known him for a long time and even played with him. The author did a great job in describing the man, especially his youth in Florida, during the fifties. If you like sports and understand the discipline and dedication that a good athlete puts into his profession you will experience it in this documentary that reads like a novel. In some ways, this book is a history of the NFL as seen through the practical eyes of a humble and sincere young man who came from a small town in the "old south" and was never groomed for college or the NFL. This is the first biography that I read completely without getting tired of all the subject's glories. The book is not self-serving. It should be mandatory reading for all high school athletes especially football players and their coaches. Submitted by: Stanley Strychaz West Hills, Californi