Green Light with Chris Long Newsletter
“All I want is the NFL to be held accountable when they misstep, just like players” - Chris Long
Deacon Jones
David “Deacon” Jones game himself the nickname Deacon because when he got to LA, there were too many David Joneses in the local phone book. “Football is a violent world and Deacon has a religious connotation,” he told The Times in 1980. “I thought a name like that would be remembered.”
“The Secretary of Defense” was a Hall of Famer who played from 1961-1974 (same era as our guy Jim Otto); most of which with the Rams and also played a couple years with the Chargers and Redskins
The Deacon Jones Award is awarded each year at NFL Honors to the player who leads the league in sacks
3 things you must know about Deacon Jones
1) Fearsome Foursome
He was a member of one of the best DL units of all time, known historically as the Fearsome Foursome alongside Merlin Olsen, Lamar Lundy, and Rosey Grier
Discuss: what are some of the other coolest unit nicknames of all time? (Purple People Eaters, Steel Curtain, New York Sack Exchange, The Hogs, etc.) … what about other sports? (Detroit Bad Boys, Broad Street Bullies, etc.)
2) He is credited with terming the expression “sack”
Sacks weren’t an officially recorded statistic until 1982, but Deacon is widely credited with coming up with the word we use for the statistic today
“I developed a term that is used in the game right now called sacking the quarterback,” Jones is quoted on NFL.com. “Sacking a quarterback is just like you devastate a city or you cream a multitude of people. I mean it’s just like you put all the offensive players in one bag and I just take a baseball bat and beat on the bag.”
Had sacks been an officially recorded stat during Deacon’s career, he would have ranked 3rd all-time in career sacks with 173.5. Bruce Smith has the most all time with 200, followed by Reggie White with 198
3) His patented “head slap” move was outlawed by the league in 1977 (his last season was 1974)
The story is that Deacon learned the head slap from his teammate Rosey Grier and perfected it (was this the OG Sack Summit?)
It was the perfect move for Deacon because of his combination of length and quickness; he said the move basically gave him an extra step on the tackle blocking him because the slap caused the tackle to blink
Here’s the crazy part: when teaching the move to Michael Strahan later (who couldn’t use it), Deacon said he had a piece of metal enclosed in a cast on his hand for games so he was basically slapping dudes with a piece of solid steel…I mean, this is like playing with brass knuckles
- Nolan
NFLPA & NFL Collusion, Netflix's Quarterback, Golf Course & NFL Fights!
THIS IS A GOOD ONE!
New information has been obtained regarding the NFL and NFLPA potential collusion. Chris details the findings, the impact on the NFL players and the next steps ahead of the 2025 NFL season. Chris, Nate and Macon also review Netflix's Quarterback TV show that highlights Joe Burrow, Jared Goff and Kirk Cousins' 2024 seasons, tier NFL QBs if they were to smoke together and react to the viral golf course fight and talk NFL fights in another great Friday Freakshow!
Ryan Clark Talks Mike Tomlin, Pittsburgh Steelers & Shares Bill Belichick Stories
In case you missed it earlier in the week, Ryan Clark joined the show!
Ryan Clark and Chris Long talking ball. The fellas chop it up and cover a number of NFL and sports topics. Ryan gives his opinion on Pittsburgh Steelers' head coach Mike Tomlin's career, the Steelers 2025 outlook and name NFL stars to specific superlatives like 'Most Underrated' and 'Freak of Nature.' The guys also cover the current sports media landscape, Ryan's ESPN career and Pivot podcast, time with Bill Belichick at Inside the NFL and talk about the pressures of their sons' playing football with NFL fathers. Enjoy!
MERCH… GET YOUR MERCH HERE
Are you a local? Show the world that you know ball by sporting some sick GLP merch
The Chalk: All Odds From BetMGM
Macon: Carlos and Iga. Parlay them. Bonus play: Suns-Wiz u179.5 Friday night Summer League, players.
Ralph: NRFI in the Det vs Sea game and Pit vs Min game
Reid: What if we did Novak Djokovic to win Wimbledon? That would be crazy right? Let’s do it.
Tanner: James Wood to win the Home Run Derby
Aidan: Watching some great Tennis, I think Sinner wins -225 (sorry Reid)
Kevin: White Sox +102
What We’re Watching:
Macon: In the rearview are Dept. Q (83/100), Tires S2 (89), and Better Sister (77). Now, we search. Couples Therapy?
Nate: Watching Love Island
Ralph: Watching Next Generation NYC and Charlie is a cunt
Reid: F1, F1 and more F1
Tanner: Watched The Peripheral on Prime last week. Good lil sci fi watch. Kinda disappointed they never made a second season. Also started The Expanse on Prime. It's okay so far, heard good things though
Aidan: Honestly, I've been detoxing off my phone as much as I can outside of work the past few days. So not watching much, but hanging with my friends and talking about life. What’s better than that?
Kevin: Cold War doc on Netflix. Cross Putin you get poisoned