Deacon Jones

CTL-E-7033 · Person · other · 1938–2013

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07905 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-7033.

David 'Deacon' Jones (December 9, 1938 – June 3, 2013) transformed the defensive end position after arriving as an obscure 14th-round draft pick of the Los Angeles Rams in 1961 out of South Carolina State and Mississippi Vocational College. As the left end of the Rams' famed Fearsome Foursome line, Jones pursued ballcarriers sideline to sideline and made the quarterback sack his signature: the Pro Football Hall of Fame credits him with coining the term 'sack' for tackling the passer behind the line of scrimmage — 'you sack a city, you devastate it,' he explained — and Britannica likewise credits him with coining the term and popularizing the head slap, since banned. Because the sack did not become an official NFL statistic until 1982, his totals are unofficial; Hall-cited research by historian John Turney credits him with 173.5 career sacks. Jones was named All-Pro five consecutive times (1965–69), was twice NFL Defensive Player of the Year, played 14 seasons for the Rams, San Diego Chargers and Washington, and entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1980 in his first year of eligibility.

The record

• Also known as: David Jones, David D. Jones, The Secretary of Defense

Notes

Sports Encyclopedia roster CTL-SPE-0387. Firsts disposition: the 'sack' claim is carried with attribution exactly as instructed — the Pro Football Hall of Fame states Jones 'coined the term sack' and Britannica concurs ('coined the term sack'); the description therefore says the Hall credits him with coining it, rather than asserting an unqualified linguistic first. Unofficial sack totals differ between researchers (Turney's 173.5, cited by the Hall, vs. a Pro Football Weekly figure of 194.5 repeated elsewhere); the record carries only the Hall-cited Turney figure, labeled unofficial. Curator's Judgment (DRAFT): Jones did not merely play a position, he named its central act — every sack recorded since 1982 is counted in a vocabulary a 14th-round pick from two Black colleges invented, which is why his Hall case never depended on the statistics the league failed to keep. Photo: CLEARED — 'Deacon Jones 1971.jpg,' Category:Deacon Jones (athlete), Public domain. NAMESAKE CAUGHT: the Commons file 'Deacon Jones 1963.png' depicts the Chicago White Sox baseball player of the same name and was rejected.

Sources

• Pro Football Hall of Fame. "Deacon Jones, 1938–2013." ProFootballHOF.com. Accessed 2026-11-03. (primary source · build store)
• Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Deacon Jones." Britannica. Accessed 2026-11-03. (primary source · build store)

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Record CTL-E-7033 · Combined Graph record U-07905 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 2 sources.
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