Slapping Heads in the NFL--and Taking Shots at Racism

An Anaheim Hills man named David Jones has written a book in which he describes growing up in a tiny, all-black town in central Florida during the early ‘50s. When he was 12 and walking out of church, a group of white teenage boys who were riding by tossed a watermelon at the churchgoers along with some racial slurs.

The watermelon, Jones writes, knocked over a frail, elderly woman, who hit her head on a stone when she went down. She died. Nothing was ever done about it.

The name of the book is “Headslap,” which has a double-meaning: The author faced a lot of headslaps in life growing up in the segregated South. But he also became famous in part for legal headslaps against his opponents in the National Football League.

On his first day of training camp for the Los Angeles Rams in 1961, David Jones became Deacon Jones, because he told the media: “I’ve come to preach the gospel of winning football for the people of Los Angeles.” He went on to a Hall of Fame career.

You may have heard the titles “King of Sacks” and “Secretary of Defense.” Those referred to Jones. Along with being part of the “Fearsome Foursome.” He became so good at those headslaps, the league had to make them illegal.

Deacon Jones’ career had ended by the time the Rams moved to Orange County before the 1980 season. But a few years ago, Jones gave up his part-ownership of the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League and moved here to become a Rams radio analyst. When the Rams moved on to St. Louis, Jones and his wife, Elizabeth, decided that Orange County would remain their home.

“People here treat me great,” Jones told me this week. “It’s as if I’d just walked off the football field yesterday instead of 22 years ago.”

Jones said he started the book (written with John Klawitter) more than six years ago. He’s spent most of the past six months promoting it. But now he’s busy with “Headslap II,” the sequel.

Jones explains: “I had about 1,200 pages of manuscript and we only got to use about 500 pages. I’ve got a lot left to say.”

The book ends with the last year of his career, 1974, when he played a season for the Washington Redskins and his beloved former Rams coach, George Allen. (Jones writes that their relationship was fiercely bonded when he once overheard Allen using Jones as a role model while lecturing his own young children.)

He’s busy these days representing several companies, serving as a motivational speaker and putting together his own foundation to provide scholarships for inner-city youth. He’s also given 150 interviews nationwide to promote his book.

Jones was brash and angry through much of his career. But to understand that, he says, you have to know his beginnings: Forced to sit in the back of the bus growing up, never allowed in the good white nightclubs, facing a fire hose and being jailed during the civil rights movement of the ‘60s.

The book, he told me, was good therapy. “I had suppressed much of what had happened. The book helped me put a lot of things behind me.”

It took so long, he said, because he wanted to include comments from others he’d known in his career, many with very different viewpoints from his own. During Jones’ rookie year, some teammates surprised him in Ku Klux Klan robes--a chilling joke that backfired when they realized Jones was genuinely scared. The book includes comments from one of the Klan hoaxers, as well as Jones’ own thoughts: “They don’t know how cruel this is. How could they know what the Klan means to a black man from the South?”

When Jones bitterly criticizes former Ram owner Dan Reeves over some contract disputes, he also includes quotes in the book from some of Reeves’ defenders.

Beyond its insight into his segregated past, Jones’ book is a delightful look at professional football and how the Rams’ Fearsome Foursome helped fans--and even some coaches--come to understand how important defense can be in turning around a game.

Jim Murray, The Times’ famed sports columnist, writes in the book’s foreword: “He was the greatest at what he did. His achievements lit the way for generations who came after him. There was only one Deacon.”

Super Bowl Newcomers: Naturally, I had to ask Jones for his Super Bowl prediction. “I’ll only say that one of the expansion teams [Jacksonville or Carolina] will make it there,” Jones said with a laugh.

We talked about Carolina having to play in the cold at Green Bay, and it brought back memories for Jones: “It’s not the cold that gets you in Green Bay, it’s the field. You can’t get the footing, which was important to me, because I had to depend on my speed. That’s what Carolina will need to worry about--the condition of the field.”

Talk About a Snake: Renovations at the Orange County Natural History Assn.’s museum in San Juan Capistrano suffered a setback recently when someone broke in and vandalized some of the terrariums. The vandal, for some bizarre reason, also thought it would be cute to turn loose most of the snakes.

Most have been recovered, according to the association’s latest newsletter. But one snake is still missing, and another, a young Pacific rattler, was apparently killed by the vandal. But the newsletter says not to worry about the gopher snake missing: “He will probably show up when he gets hungry.”

Puffing for a Cause: If giving up smoking was among your New Year’s resolutions, you might be interested in forcing something a little cleaner into your lungs.

If you leave your home early this morning, you can sign up for today’s half-K walk or 2K and 5K runs in Irvine, sponsored by the American Lung Assn. of Orange County. The event is being held to raise money to fight lung cancer and other lung diseases. The races start and end at the Woodbridge Village Shopping Center (Barranca Parkway and Lake Road). Registration starts about 6 a.m. The races start at 8:45 a.m.

Wrap-Up: The other members of the Fearsome Foursome were Merlin Olsen (who went on to a career as a TV football analyst), Rosie Grier (who became a minister) and Lamar Lundy.

Lundy was Jones’ roommate while he was with the Rams.

“He was the one who kept me on the right path,” Jones said. “If it hadn’t been for Lamar, I don’t know what would have happened to me.”

Lundy is now critically ill. Jones and several other football greats--including Olsen and Grier--will participate in the Southern California Pro Football Festival at Cal State Fullerton on Jan. 19, a fund-raiser for Lundy. Spokesman Pete Donovan says it will be a “fan-friendly” afternoon ($20 for adults, $10 for children.) You can toss the football with some of them, have your picture taken with them or listen to their stories about the glory days.

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling The Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail to [email protected]