Deacon Jones attacks interviews the way he used to stalk quarterbacks -- with abandon, no holds barred.
Outspoken, opinionated and unwary of offending, the Hall of Famer credited with giving a name to one of football's signature defensive plays seems to hold cliches and rote answers in the same regard he once did his prey -- which is to say, very little.
Jones' forte, of course, was sacking quarterbacks, a term he coined to give cachet to the art of tackling passers.
"You take all the offensive linemen and put them in a burlap bag, and then you take a baseball bat and beat on the bag," Jones says, explaining the term. "You're sacking them, you're bagging them. And that's what you're doing with a quarterback."
Jones, 70, pulls forward in his chair as he speaks, voice booming to a near-shout as he makes his points. Cigarette in hand, the greatest defensive end in the history of the Los Angeles Rams is seated in the living room of the spacious home he shares with wife Elizabeth in a gated community in Anaheim Hills.
Of his legendary aversion to opposing quarterbacks, he notes, "You kill the head of the snake, the body dies. He is the rallying point, so you've got to create that daily hate" for the quarterback.
Pro football may never have seen a more ferocious pass rusher than David "Deacon" Jones, a 14th-round pick who turned out to be one of the greatest steals in NFL draft history.
Relying on footwork, speed and a devastating set of flying hands -- his 1996 biography, "Headslap," was named after his since-banned signature move -- Jones struck fear in the hearts of opposing quarterbacks for 14 seasons with the Rams, San Diego Chargers and Washington Redskins from 1961 to 1974. An eight-time Pro Bowl selection and five-time first-team All-Pro, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1980.
"Unstoppable as a flood, as elusive as a fly in a hot room," Jim Murray wrote of Jones, who nicknamed himself Deacon after a chance meeting with a Disney executive convinced him that he needed a more distinctive moniker to stand out in a crowd.
Said Merlin Olsen of his former teammate: "There has never been a better football player than Deacon Jones."
Jones doesn't argue.
"I came as close to perfection," the former "Secretary of Defense" says, "as you can possibly get."
Except he never won a ring.
