Headslap: The Life and Times of Deacon Jones (HC) (1988)

This book's going to raise a howl, promises Deacon Jones. You wait and see! From a small rural town in Florida to the NFL Hall of Fame, this is the story of Deacon's rise to the top of the heap in the National Football League. Headslap refers to the lightning move popularized by Jones in the early days of the game, when a player could rattle the cage (or at least the helmet) of a blocker by belting him alongside the head. And Deacon did this better than anyone in the game. They weren't jabs; they were full left hooks and right crosses. So devastating was this move that the League outlawed it.More than a simple sports story, Headslap brings to full view the NFL during the 1960s and 1970s - a time of incredible social upheaval and change in the United States. Deacon's story reveals the difficulties that all black players confronted trying to break into the NFL.