Quality over Quantity? That's 'Tombstone' Jackson

By John Turney 

Rich Jackson

How short is too short for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and how elite is elite? OK, let's try putting those two ideas together and asking the question another way: Can a player with a short career be considered great enough to be enshrined in Canton?

I think you know the answer.

Look at Chicago's Gale Sayers. He's the classic example of the post-two-way era. His seven-year career was long enough because for five of them he was a phenom ... making first-team All-Pro every year and wowing fans like few had before.

Or since.

But Sayers was the seven-season exception ... until 2017, that is. Then along came Kenny Easley, Terrell Davis, Tony Boselli and this year's seniors' inductee, Sterling Sharpe. So, if seven years is acceptable for those guys, why not for former defensive lineman and linebacker Rich "Tombstone" Jackson? He wasn't the five-time All-Pro like the "Kansas Comet," but he does seem comparable to others in terms of peak performance.

Let me explain.

Jackson was called one of the two best defensive ends Sports Illustrated's Paul Zimmerman ever saw. The other was Deacon Jones. But the former Hall-of-Fame voter never could get Jackson's name included in a serious discussion for Canton, mostly because of longevity. He didn't have it.

That didn't matter to "Dr. Z," who was all about quality over quantity. If he was considering two candidates, and one was better than the other -- even though he played fewer seasons and games -- he'd choose him. As I said, he always leaned on the side of quality. However, he wasn't persuasive enough with Jackson. He was never a Hall-of-Fame finalist or semifinalist.

But with the recent inductions of finalists with short careers, maybe he was on to something. When two candidates are close, maybe quality IS better than quantity. And what Zimmerman saw in Rich Jackson was a dominant defensive end who frightened and beat up offensive tackles.

At his peak, there were no better defensive ends in the NFL. He was an elite pass rusher who could go around or through blockers. But he was more than a one-trick pony. He was a force in the run game, too, acting more like a blocker than a tackler. Instead of absorbing blocks and trying to fight them off, he put his shoulder under an opposing lineman's pads and drove him backward ... off the line of scrimmage.

Essentially, his object was to win the collision, and he could -- often hurting his opponent. 

"I would run-block the run blockers, if you know what I mean," said the Southern University grad. "What they were trying to do to me, I just got there quicker and lower." 

As the Broncos' enforcer, Jackson filled an additional role on defense. His job was to teach lessons to offensive linemen guilty of frequent fouls, especially holding. When Lyle Alzado was a rookie with Denver, for instance, a tackle tried "trash-talking" him until Alzado complained to "Tombstone." So the two switched positions, and, according to Alzado, Jackson "knocked the guy out. Head slap. All I heard was pow! And this guy was on the ground."

Then there was the time Jackson went mano-a-mano with Hall-of-Fame tackle Bob Brown.

"Rich just devastated the guy," said Alzado, who described Jackson as the toughest man he ever met. "Rich had his nose bleeding, knocked out his teeth, broke his helmet. I saw Rich knock guys to their knees with the head slap. Knocked them on their back."

Hard to believe, but he did this from a 245-250-pound frame. Though not huge by NFL standards, Jackson was strong. Legendarily strong. He may have had more natural strength than any defensive end ever, bench-pressing over 550 pounds. By almost all accounts, when healthy, Rich Jackson was a mismatch for all opponents. In fact, Hall-of-Fame quarterback Len Dawson said that when he thought of him, he thought of pain.

I don't care that his career was short. Neither should the Hall's seniors committee. After all, his three All-Pro seasons are the same as the other seven-season phenoms -- Boselli, Davis, Easley and Sterling Sharpe. But Jackson was also on the AFL's All-Time team. He was also voted his league or conference's defensive lineman of the year in 1969 and 1970. 

According to Broncos' gamebooks, in his three All-Pro seasons, "Tombstone" averaged 90 tackles, 11 sacks, seven passes defensed and two forced fumbles. He ended his career with 45 sacks, and while that total is not prodigious, remember this: He was the individual opponents targeted on the Denver defense, often assigning a tight end or running back to assist tackles who couldn't block him.

Unfortunately, the Broncos of Jackson's era (1967-71) were not winners. He had winning seasons only in his first and last pro seasons, and they weren't with Denver. They were with the 1966 Raiders and the 1972 Browns..

Maybe that backed off voters, I don't know. But times have changed, and voters should, too. A star player who is in the Black College Football Hall of Fame, the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame and the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame deserves a shot to be in the ultimate Hall of Fame -- the one in Canton, Ohio.

Anyone with a peak like Rich Jackson's must be considered. 

Career stats and honors—