By John Turney  |
| AI colorization |
George Atkinson, the hard-hitting Oakland Raiders safety known as "The Hit Man" and a cornerstone of the 1970s "Soul Patrol" secondary, died two days ago, in Georgia at age 78. The Raiders announced that his family informed the organization of his passing; no cause was released.
"George"s contributions as a friend and mentor to everyone in the Raiders organization continued long after his playing career, and his genuine personality and wonderful sense of humor will be dearly missed by everyone who knew him," the Raiders said in a statement.
Born January 4, 1947, in Savannah, Georgia, Atkinson starred at Sol C. Johnson High School before playing at Morris Brown College in Atlanta from 1964 to 1967, lettering four years in football for the Wolverines of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) while also earning three letters in track.
He arrived as a versatile athlete who had starred as a running back, safety, and return man and he developed into a four-year starter who contributed on both sides of the ball—primarily as a free safety and kick/punt return specialist, with significant early work as a receiver.
In 1965, he led the team in pass receptions. The following year he earned selection to the Atlanta Daily World’s All-SIAC team and the "100% Wrong Club" All-SIAC squad. As a senior in 1967, he repeated on the "100% Wrong Club" All-SIAC team, made the SIAC All-Conference team, and received Sporting News Honorable Mention All-America recognition.
Note: The "100% Wrong Club" was an Atlanta-based Black sports booster organization, active from the mid-1930s into the 1980s
His collegiate performance was enough to catch the eye of the Raiders, who selected him in the seventh round (190th overall) of the 1968 NFL/AFL Draft. Atkinson was part of a draft class that included Ken Stabler and Art Shell, running backs Marv Hubbard and Charlie Smith, who as a group, played over 700 games for the club and were vital in the Raiders' success in the 1970s.
He began as a cornerback and was also an explosive return specialist, earning AFL All-Star honors in both 1968 and 1969 and co-AFL Defensive Rookie of the Year recognition in 1968. During his rookie season, he returned 36 punts for 490 yards and two touchdowns (AFL highs) and added 32 kickoff returns for 802 yards
Atkinson ended his career with 148 punt returns that went for 1,247 yards (8.4 yd avg) and three he took to the house. Additionally, he averaged just under 25 yards per kickoff return as well make him one of the better dual-threat returners of his day.
He transitioned to safety and after giving up over 200 yards to Don Maynard in an AFL playoff game (Heidi game), it made sense to move him to safety. In his first year at the position, he made second-team All-AFL in 1969.
Alongside Jack Tatum, Willie Brown, and Skip Thomas, he anchored the physical "Soul Patrol" secondary that helped define the Raiders of the John Madden era. In all, Atkinson played in 144 games (126 starts with Oakland), recording 30 interceptions for 448 yards and two touchdowns, eight defensive fumble recoveries (two returned for scores), and three punt-return touchdowns. He ranks among the franchise’s all-time leaders in interceptions, punt returns, and kickoff returns.
In 1976, he earned second-team All-AFC recognition from UPI while helping the Raiders to a 13-1 regular season and a 32-14 Super Bowl XI victory over the Minnesota Vikings. Prior to that game, syndicated columnist Jim Murray said Atkinson was the NFL's "Dracula" because of his ferocious, sometimes controversial physicality.
The wordsmith also wrote, "George Atkinson became a combination of Jaws and a swarm of killer bees in the public press and public’s mind."
Atkinson's forearm hits on Pittsburgh's Lynn Swann—in the 1975 AFC Championship Game and the 1976 season opener—left the receiver concussed and drew national attention. Steelers coach Chuck Noll labeled him part of the NFL's "criminal element," prompting Atkinson to sue Noll, the Steelers, and the Oakland Tribune for defamation, seeking a couple of million dollars. He was represented by then-California Assemblyman Willie Brown (later mayor of San Francisco and governor of California), not to be confused with his Raiders teammate of the same name!
The 1977 trial probed the line between aggressive football and dangerous play, with game film used to question Noll about questionable hits by his own hard-hitting players. After four hours of deliberation, the jury ruled for Noll and the newspaper. The case became one of the era’s most public disputes over violence in the NFL, and Atkinson’s name stayed closely linked to it.
He also drew notice for a nose-breaking hit on Patriots tight end Russ Francis. Afterward, Atkinson said, "After I gave Russ Francis that lick last Saturday, we walked off the field when the game was over. He told me he hoped we won the Super Bowl. He knows I’m just playing the game the way I have to. He knows I'm really a nice guy." Atkinson maintained he played the game the right way, believing that “if you stick 'em real good, they'll give the ball up."
These controversies led to change in the league. In the spring of 1977, NFL owners tabled a proposal that had become known as the "George Atkinson Rule," which sought to more clearly define and penalize blatant striking or hitting of an opponent.
However, the rule itself was not adopted at the April meeting, but as we know, it was part of what led to the safety measures that play a part in today's NFL.
So maybe the man once referred to as the "Conrad Dobler of defensive backs" wasn't a combination of a killer shark and killer bees or a killer vampire. Maybe he was just part of a hard-hitting group of defensive backs that included Jack Tatum, who was essentially a bigger, more powerful version of Atkinson. Atkinson told the San Jose Mercury News in a 2016 interview. "Football is a collision sport; if you don’t have a certain mentality, you will get run out of the game."
Atkinson’s decade with the Raiders ended in training camp in 1978 over a chronic finger injury.
The veteran strong safety was placed on waivers in after missing more than a week of camp because of a dislocated ring finger on his left hand. The finger had already been operated on three times. Atkinson maintained the injury was too painful for him to play.
Raiders director of operations Ron Wolf made the move but added that if Atkinson could prove the injury was disabling enough to keep him from playing, the Raiders would have been obligated to honor his contract for the season.
So, Atkinson sat out that year, but in midseason 1979 he signed with the rival Denver Broncos when their defensive backfield room was hit by injuries. He played six games for them, but made just two tackles as a depth player and marked his final season in pro football.
Aside from the on-field controversies, the Hit Man also had a legal incident in July 1975; Atkinson testified in a San Francisco case in which he was accused of inducing two bank tellers he had dated to embezzle roughly $3,200 in bank instruments in 1973–74. He denied the charges, stating he had never asked the women to cash checks or take bank securities for him. Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis and several teammates, including Jack Tatum, Willie Brown, Phil Villapiano, and Bubba Smith, testified to his reputation and believed in the innocence of Atkinson. The trial went to the jury but ended in a mistrial after a jury deadlocked (again, his lawyer was Willie Brown).
After his playing days were over, Atkinson remained a lifelong Raider. He worked as a pre- and post-game broadcaster for the team for roughly 17 years and hosted the television program "Behind the Shield" featuring Raiders-related content.
In a 2016 interview, he acknowledged symptoms consistent with CTE and pledged to donate his brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation. He was married to Denise and was the father of nine children, including twin sons Josh and George III, who both played at Notre Dame; George III later played in the NFL. Tragically, both died by suicide (Josh in 2018, George in 2019) and were posthumously diagnosed with stage 1 CTE by Boston University researchers—the first twin brothers diagnosed with the disease per media reports.
Atkinson's football legacy, then, cannot be reduced to the frightening image created by his biggest hits. He was a seventh-round pick who became an AFL All-Star, a productive defensive back, an explosive return man, and a member of a championship team. He also occupied a place in the game's difficult transition from celebrating violent contact to confronting its consequences.
He is in the SIAC Hall of Fame, the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, the Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame and was a finalist for the Black College Football Hall of Fame.
The "Hit Man" nickname captured the force he brought to the field, but not the whole man: the teammate, broadcaster, husband, and father whose family experienced football's costs in ways no statistic can measure. George Atkinson helped make the Raiders feared, and his career remains part of the story of how professional football played, and eventually reconsidered, its most physical game.
Career stats:
Source for stats NFL gamebooks.
Notes:
PD = passes defensed and were scored differently in the AFL, with players given credit for good or close coverage so the 32 PDs those years are high compared to later scoring. Other than INTs and FRs, defensive stats were not official or consistent compared to today.
Stf = run or pass tackles for a loss, accounted for the same was as sacks.
