MHR's Forgotten Broncos -- Rich "Tombstone" Jackson

Jackson was another one of those “tweeners”. He was as fast as a LB and as strong as a DE. Opponents found it very difficult to stop him and they could’t run at him either!

In January of 1978 he went to the Broncos hotel in Denver and mingled with Alzado, Paul Smith and the older Broncos who went to that Super Bowl and he said he was jealous. Not the crazy F- off kind the kind Man, I wish my knees would not have gave out on me. He was soooo awesome. I was glad he was in the first group of Ring of famers. Plus the colorado sports hall of fame inducted him in 1975. If that tells you anything. He never forgave Ralston for trading him, even though he acknowledged it was the right thing to do as an organization. Cuz his knees were gone by then. Even that clown at SI (Zimmerman) has stated if he would have lasted a few more years he would have been the first Bronco in the Hall.
These are real great articles. I have so many old time Broncos that pop into my brain when I read these.
Bravo Zulu (Job Well Done- from my USN Days.)

of players I’d forgotten I remembered. Good medicine for us nostalgic types.

The anticipation of the opponents snap, I always watched where Tombstone was lined up. He was awsome to watch and rarely did anybody get by him. One time he head slapped a Tackle and they brought in a stretcher to carry the guy off the field. Jackson was tenacious, strong and was the standard of what a tough football player was.

There is an old interview of Lyle Alzado on film. He came into the lockeroom in his first camp as a rookie. Determined he was going to make a reputation as the toughest and meanest player ever, he was tying his shoes when… A shirt fell on top of his hands. He said ” how dare somebody do that, I’ll rip his head off ” As he looked up he saw the long long arm and a tatoo that said tombstone. “Oh Crap! ” It’s Tombstone Jackson!” He grabbed the shirt and with a squeeky voice said “I believe you dropped your shirt Mr. Jackson”.

I’ll never forget Rich Jackson. I will always say that he deserves the HOF. Even Evil Al said the same, but then noted he will never make it because of tenure. That’s really too bad. At least we have forums such as this site MHR to help his legacy and remember a player that was truly one of the best to ever play the game.

I don’t know if any of you have the DVD “Broncos: The Complete History”, but I got that for my last birthday, and there is a great segment on one of the discs about Tombstone Jackson. It’s just amazing to watch him blast through the line and obliterate QBs/RBs. I wish I could have seen him in person… The segment actually includes the interview with Alzado that Denver Diehard mentioned; its kind of funny to listen to Alzado, as you can tell he was actually scared of Jackson himself.

...have had several great defensive linemen, but Jackson was the best. He scared the #*@! out of everybody on the other side of the ball. These were grown men, tough men, but even in a pride of lions there’s one that’s tougher than the rest. That’s Rich Jackson.

It really is a shame about his injury. If only he’d been given just a little more time. But given the bias, and we all know the one I’m talking about, maybe even more time wouldn’t have made a difference.

...who would say, “I can’t believe this is legal.” And it woouldn’t be, outside the field.