Christopher Walken's, 'A man is an artist,' monologue in Man on Fire is one of my favorite in recent memory, the man that he could have been describing would likely be someone like David D. "Deacon" Jones.
The world lost Jones earlier this month and today the NFL Network's Ian Rapoport let some news slip:
.@NFL will unveil a new award in 2013: The Deacon Jones Award, given to league's sack leader. Will be announced at Deacon's memorial service
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) June 22, 2013
Quite a step for a league that didn't even begin recording sacks until 1982, it was actually Jones who coined the term. Jones felt that a sack devastated an offense in the same way a city was devastated when it was sacked. Prior to that the term had been dump, as in 'dumping the quarterback' (thankfully that didn't stick, pop culture as we know it may have changed).
Now along with the preseason conversations of MVP and Comeback Player of the Year, we can insert in Deacon Jones. It also looks like Denver Broncos fans will have someone in the conversation for the near and not so near future in Von Miller.
And if this current regime keeps drafting defensive players the way that they have been, there should be more than just Miller.