Feb. Issue (1)

February 18, 2021
The Spectator | www.vsuspectator.com Page 12
VSU Legend: Jesse Tuggle’s Story
Nathan Harrell
Staff Writer
naharrell@valdosta.edu
Jessie “The Hammer” Tuggle
wasn’t the biggest kid coming out
of high school. Even after being
voted MVP of his Griffin High
School football team that he led
to the state semi-finals his senior
year, Division I recruiters thought
he was too small to compete at
their level.
In fact, at only 5’10 and 180
pounds, most Division II schools
were also turned off by Tuggle’s
size. His story goes to show that
recruiting doesn’t tell you how
much heart a player has or how
dedicated.
Valdosta State College’s head
coach Jim Goodman must have
caught a glimpse when he offered
the undersized defensive end a
scholarship in 1982. The only
other scholarship Tuggle would
be offered was from University of
West Georgia.
Even though VSU’s football
program was only in its second
year of existence, Tuggle wanted
to be further from home. Luckily,
Valdosta was nearly 170 miles
away and offered exactly that.
Tuggle put on 20 pounds and
grew to 5’11 by the start of his
freshman season in ‘83. He earned
a starting position at right defensive
end and was a solid contributor
for a young Blazer defense
that was quickly putting the rest
of the Gulf South Conference on
notice.
Tuggle showed hints of the
game wrecker he’d soon become
and was awarded the defense’s
Most Improved Player Award at
the end of the season. In 1984,
Tuggle would be named to the
All-GSC team.
During Tuggle’s junior season,
new head coach Jim Berryman
moved Tuggle to
inside linebacker during the
spring, a move that would
“pay dividends” according
to the school’s 1985 football
program.
This was also the season
Tug established himself as a
leader on the team and one
of the most dominant defensive
players in the conference.
Now up to 230 pounds,
Tuggle was known for his
bone-crushing tackling. He
finished the season with 107
tackles.
Tuggle’s tackling and
leadership earned him another
spot all-conference at
the end of the season. This
was his first year making
first-team, an honor shared
with three other Blazers that
season.
Despite entering the next
season predicted to finish
eighth out of nine teams in
the conference, Tuggle led
VSU to second in the conference
and a 9-2 record, which was a
landmark season for the Blazers.
By the end of his senior season,
Tuggle would again be named
first team all-GSC. He was also
named the 1986 GSC-Defensive
Player of the Year, the school’s
first to win the award, and he was
named a consensus first team
Kodak All-American.
Tuggle also led the Blazers in
tackles for the first time in his
career with 129 on the season,
the second highest season total
Photo courtesy of VSU
Jesse Tuggle during a game in October of 1985.
Tuggle played for VSU from 1983-1986, Joined
the Atlanta Falcons in 1987 and led the league in
tackles in 1990.
in VSU history. Tuggle would
leave the school’s all-time leading
tackler (340), though he has since
been passed by Larry Dean and
Chris Pope.
From VSU, Tuggle would go
undrafted in the 1986 NFL draft.
Despite bulking up to 230 pounds,
his 5’11 frame still concerned
NFL scouts that questioned
whether he’d be able to hit NFL
athletes as hard as he’d been
hitting collegiate ones. However,
thanks to connections coach Cavan
had with the Falcons, Tuggle
was able to secure a tryout.
He made the most of this
tryout to launch a 14-year
NFL career and played for
Atlanta every year of it.
Tuggle is on a short list
of professional athletes to
have played their entire
careers in Georgia from
high school all the way to
the pros.
Tuggle started a few
games his first two years,
but it was during the 1989
season that he really started
to come into his own.
The 24-year-old started
at middle linebacker every
game that season and led
the Falcons in tackles (183)
in 1989, a feat he would
repeat nine consecutive
seasons until 1998.
The improvement continued
into the 1990 season,
when Tuggle would lead the
NFL with 201 total tackles.
Tuggle led the league in
tackles four times during his
14 year-career.
Thebruising linebacker had
two seasons in which he recorded
200+ tackles. There have only
been three seasons in the history
of the NFL in which a player has
accomplished this feat.
In 1991, Tuggle set the Falcons
all-time record for tackles in a single
season with a whopping 207.
Tuggle made his first pro-bowl in
1992 and made five in total during
his career with the Falcons.
Even though the Falcons frequently
lost during Tuggle’s early
years on the team, he remained
faithful to the team, never leaving
Atlanta.
During the NFC championship
against the Vikings in 1998,
Tuggle tallied a franchise playoffbest
11 tackles to send the Falcons
to their first ever Super Bowl.
After losing the Super Bowl to
the San Francisco 49ers, Tuggle’s
decorated career was drawing to a
close. He missed ten games over
the next two seasons and would
ultimately retire at the end of the
2000 season.
Tuggle retired with over 1800
total career tackles with the Falcons
(due to tackles not becoming
an official NFL statistic until the
early 2000s, Tuggle’s stats vary
between 1600 and over 2000), the
most in the history of the franchise
by nearly 700.
Tuggle’s #58 jersey is memorialized
in the Falcons ‘Ring of
Honor,’ and his #88 jersey was
retired by VSU.
Tuggle was a part of VSU’s inaugural
hall of fame class in 1997,
and 10 years later he was voted
into the College Football Hall of
Fame as one of the greatest athletes
to ever come through VSU.
In 2009, VSU completed the
Jessie Tuggle Strength and Fitness
Complex in recognition of
Tuggle’s legacy.