The IRS found that Lane, who gave up his chairmanship of HP in April after coming under investor pressure for his role in the acquisition of Autonomy Plc, participated in a "sham" tax shelter and generated losses of $251 million to offset income, Bloomberg reported, citing appeal papers filed May 6 with the U.S. Tax Court in Washington, D.C.

Lane told Reuters the issue stemmed from a fund in 2000 that his tax advisers "put him into," which in turn invested in startups during the first dotcom boom.

"It became obvious in 2004 that the IRS looked at it as a tax shelter. And nothing has happened until 2013," Lane said in an interview, adding that the IRS simply said it was auditing Lane's 2000 returns and asked him to sign extensions on a statute of limitations every 18 months.

"They were reviewing, and I was reviewing, the upfront payment that was made which they considered to be fees, which we had claimed had been warrants in these companies," he explained. "One would be taxed as ordinary income, and one would be taxed as capital gains."

Lane said he recently signed a settlement letter with the IRS regarding the taxes owed but has yet to pay his outstanding bill.

"I have never disagreed with it," he said. "I have waited for the IRS. They just simply kept extending it."

Lane has had a rough year. Following his resignation as chairman of HP, Lane also stepped down from the board of troubled automaker Fisker Automotive, which he had backed while at Kleiner.

Lane joined storied venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins in 2000 after eight years at Oracle Corp , where he helped take the software company to $10 billion in revenue from $1 billion. Although his expertise lay in software, he increasingly took on clean technology, which became a focal point at Kleiner.

(Reporting By Poornima Gupta; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

The lizard, one of the largest ever known, has been dubbed Barbaturex morrisoni in honor of The Doors' singer Jim Morrison, who once wrote a song that included the lyrics, "I am the lizard king/I can do anything."

"This is a king , and he was the lizard king, so it just fit," said Jason Head, a paleontologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln who led the study and gave the ancient lizard its musically inspired moniker.

A lizard of unusual size

In modern times, most lizards are much smaller than the mammals that share their environment. The few exceptions, such as the gigantic and toothy , live in places where there are few mammals around (Komodo dragons are found on isolated Indonesian islands, for example).

B. morrisoni lived in a different world. About 36 million to 40 million years ago, the lizard outweighed the mammals that shared its mangrove forest home in what is now Myanmar. It was a gentle giant, with teeth designed for shearing vegetation, not slicing flesh.

The lizard fossils were first collected during expeditions in the 1970s, but they sat unanalyzed in a museum collection for more than 30 years until Head and his colleagues decided to study them. []

The jaw of B. morrisoni sported a series of ridges that suggest the animal had some sort ofsuch as a skin flap. The lizard might have looked something like the bearded dragons seen in pet stores today except instead of growing to be a foot or so long (30 centimeters), the ancient lizard would have been about 6 feet (1.8 meters) from nose to tail, Head said. It would have weighed about 68 pounds (30 kilograms).

"This was a really huge plant-eating lizard, much bigger than anything alive today," Head told LiveScience.

Komodo dragons can grow 10 feet long (3 meters), but they eat meat.

Warm world, big lizards

The lizard king discovery helps clear up a mystery about why lizards don't grow as large today as they once did, Head and his colleagues found. No one knew whether large plant-eating lizards are scarce today because they simply can't compete with mammals or because they're limited by modern-day temperatures. , meaning they rely on environmental heat to keep their body temperature up.

The Eocene epoch, when B. morrisoni lived, was much warmer than today. Based on the size of the lizard and the metabolism it would need to get that large, Head and his colleagues estimate that global average temperatures were 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit (2.5 degrees Celsius) higher than today.

"This was a greenhouse world," Head said. "There was no ice at the poles. There were higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere," trapping heat.

In this hot environment, the lizard king outgrew the plant-eating mammals in its ecosystem as well as many of the meat eaters, Head said. That growth ability suggests the presence of mammals is not keeping lizards down today; it's likely lower global temperatures.

"When we had these veryin the past, we had much different ecosystems, and reptiles could compete with mammals much more successfully," Head said. Plants may have also flourished more readily in this steamy climate, providing more food for the herbivorous lizards.

The findings, reported today (June 4) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, reveal how ancient ecosystems can hold up a mirror to modern ones, Head said.

"Paleontology is really vital for understanding not only where we've come from, but where we are now, and where we're going in the future," he said.

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PARMA, Italy (Reuters) - Giorgio Nava, an Italian chef based in South Africa, won the World Pasta Championship in the Italian city of Parma on Saturday with a low-cost recipe that he said suited Italy's deep economic crisis.

Nava, who has won awards for his work at the Cape Town restaurants '95 Keerom' and 'Carne SA', wooed the public and the jury with a simple plate of cavatelli - small pasta shells - broccoli and oregano flowers.

"Simplicity was the key. I presented a recipe that is very cheap but very tasty," Nava told Reuters after his victory.

"Others competed with expensive fish-based recipes but right now, given the economic situation in Italy, it did not seem right to come forward with extravagant dishes."

The pasta championship, which was held for the first time last year, took place at the Barilla Food Academy in Parma, considered Italy's food capital and best-known for Parmesan cheese and cured Parma ham.

Twenty-four carefully selected cooks, including Hong-Kong born John Leung, competed in the two-day championship.

Participants were given 40 minutes to complete their dish in the first round of the championship on Friday and only 30 minutes during the final on Saturday.

"My dish is something easy to make, anyone can cook it a home," said Nava. "After all, simple things are often the best."

Last year's award went to Japanese chef Yoshi Yamada.

(Additional reporting and writing by Lisa Jucca; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

He didn't deserve any blame for fans leaving early, either, though hundreds found their way to the exit even before the 12th round began.

If they were spending $1,000 and up for tickets to a brawl, they should have known better. Mayweather built a career on not getting hit, and there was no reason to think he was going to make the same mistakes as last year against Miguel Cotto against a fighter whose only hope of winning was to rough him up.

Instead of booing, they should have been applauding. Instead of leaving, they should have been on their feet cheering.

On the canvas where he does his best work, Mayweather painted a boxing masterpiece only he could produce.

"Everyone was saying at the age of 36 I don't have it no more," Mayweather said. "All I want to do is give fans exciting fights."

This one wasn't as much exciting as it was brilliant. Mayweather used defensive skills built up over a lifetime to take apart a very good fighter Saturday night and do it in such lopsided fashion that ringside judges seemed to be searching for a round to give to Guerrero.

He hit Guerrero with right hand leads all night and might have knocked him out had he not hurt his hand in the eighth round. When Guerrero tried to land big shots of his own, Mayweather was either smothering him on the ropes or had danced out of harm's way.

It was a $32 million display of all that's right about the sweet science. And if it didn't satisfy all the fans at the MGM Grand or those who paid $69.95 for the pay-per-view, it kept Mayweather undefeated in 44 fights in what is becoming a remarkable boxing career.

"I showed the world I can still box," Mayweather said. "I showed my defense is still there. I'm still fast."

Most importantly, perhaps, it showed Mayweather himself that he still has it. After spending two months in jail and a year out of the ring, he returned with a performance that was vintage Mayweather.

His father was back in the corner and was put to good use. Both Floyd Sr. and Floyd Jr. thought the boxer got hit too much when he went toe-to-toe with Cotto last May and were determined to focus on defense against Guerrero, who tried his best for 12 rounds to turn the fight into a brawl, to no avail.

The plan was to hit and not get hit. It worked to perfection, with Guerrero landing only 19 percent of his punches to 41 percent for Mayweather.

"The less you get hit, the longer you last in boxing," Mayweather said.

Mayweather has followed that creed so well that he has lasted 17 years in the sport, and he looks no worse for the wear. He's managed to build a boxing empire on pay-per-view sales despite having a style that is less than crowd pleasing, and his $32 million payday for Guerrero shows he remains a huge attraction.

He wants to fight again in September, which would be the first time since 2007 he fought twice in a calendar year. That could be delayed by his injured right hand, though Mayweather insisted after the fight he would be ready to go.

The question now becomes who Mayweather will face. Upcoming Mexican star Canelo Alvarez would be the most attractive fight, but the short lead time to September virtually ensures that bout won't happen until at least next May, at best.

Mayweather is in the unique position where he can handpick his opponents, and he's been criticized for trying to find fighters he knows he can beat. Alvarez would be a risky fight, one Mayweather might want to save until late in the remaining five fights he has under a deal with Showtime that he says will be the last of his career.

"He's a young guy," Mayweather said of Alvarez. "Floyd Mayweather isn't going to duck anybody. My job is to go out there, rack up victories and be the best Floyd Mayweather I can be."

Whether that is good enough to make Mayweather among the all-time greats was a topic of questioning at the post-fight news conference. Mayweather may be a dominating fighter, but he hasn't had a rivalry to get fight fans excited and he came up with excuse after excuse not to fight Manny Pacquiao when Pacquiao was still in his prime.

He also hasn't fought regularly enough to press a claim for greatness, something that could change if he goes through on plans to fight every six months or so under the Showtime deal.

"I just do what I do," Mayweather said. "I've given this sport my whole life."

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - One of the coups of USA's new darker crime drama, "Graceland," was landing Aaron Tveit.

For years, Hollywood has tried to find some way to bring the Broadway star into series television. Despite a recurring role on "Gossip Girl" and a few guest star turns, "Graceland" finally nabbed the actor.

"I had an acting teacher tell me years ago that if you play someone, you want them to be the best at whatever they do," Tveit said during TheWrap's set visit in Fort Lauderdale.

"It's not fun to play someone who's an OK salesman," he continued. "It's fun to play the best car salesman. So, that's the other thing that I really loved about Mike is that he's a brilliant agent, and he kind of has no field experience. So I thought it was very interesting to see how all those things are going to come together, and I just was instantly drawn to it."

Tveit first got Hollywood's attention after doing Broadway's "Wicked" and "Next to Normal." Most recently, he was part of the celebrated cast of the film adaptation of "Les Miserables."

Now, he plays Mike Warren, a newly graduated FBI agent assigned to a multi-agency safe house in Manhattan Beach, Calif. dubbed "Graceland."

Talk about the adjustment of going from a stage to a television series.

It's something that I've had to work on a lot. I was doing "Gossip Girl" while I was doing "Next to Normal" on stage. So, I was actually doing those two jobs at the same time for a while and that was really interesting because I'd be on stage all day and then I'd go to work on a stage. Working on camera in film and television is a much more technical medium at the outset, how to tell the story through using the camera frame. So, I think once I had put in a lot of work, it started to really point at the same thing for me. Like, I find that I'm able to do the same for preparation and character work and homework, but it's just how I then present it is different.

How will Mike evolve this season?

Aaron Tveit: Mike is thrown right in it. I mean he's someone who's very prepared for this job, but he just kind of doesn't actually have the sea legs. But I mean they - they drop him right in the water and kind of tell him to figure out how to swim right away. So I have to, I have to learn really fast what happens. Then over the course of the season, just the-the situations that we've all been put in a very short period of time, uh, he-he grows up real quick. I grow up real quick in the show.

Does Mike have a romantic interest this season?

I'm such an East Coast guy that being out on the West Coast and being in this situation is so not what he bargained for. And then I meet this beautiful girl and she happens to be spending the summer out here. She's from the DC area, and we kind of you know bond over that. And then you know that gets very complicated, too, because I really care for this girl, but then I literally have to lie to her all the time, and so it's... it becomes... you know that becomes a very straining thing too about that I want to be honest with this person, and I can't be honest with this person.

"Graceland" premieres Tuesday at 10/9c.

The Newseum announced plans Tuesday for "Anchorman: The Exhibit" to be created with Paramount Pictures. It's scheduled to open Nov. 14 with props, costumes and footage from the film, including Burgundy's jazz flute and a mock anchor desk.

The exhibit would open just before the release of the sequel "Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues" in December.

Newseum Vice President of Exhibits Cathy Trost says news anchors represent the authority of TV news but also have been targets for laughs. She says the exhibit will explore the reality behind the humor of "Anchorman" and the rise of personality-driven news in the 1970s.

Cullen Finnerty, 30, a former Grand Valley State University quarterback, went missing Sunday while fishing near his family's cottage. His body was found in Webber Township about a mile from where he disappeared, but authorities said no foul play was suspected. An autopsy will be needed to determine how he died, they said.

Finnerty led Grand Valley State University to three Division II national titles and more than 50 wins during his four years as a starter in Allendale, Mich., last decade. His body was found about 8 p.m. in woods within a mile of where he disappeared, said Lake County Undersheriff Dennis Robinson.

Robinson said the body was not in the water and was found in a wooded area in near the family's cottage.

The search drew scores of police and volunteers, including staff and players from Grand Valley State.

Finnerty last spoke to a family member that night in a phone call in which he said "he was nervous about something," Sheriff Robert Hilts said earlier Tuesday. Based on that call, the family suspected "he might be having some kind of a mental episode that he was either afraid or something and ran off into the woods," Hilts said.

The sheriff said authorities had been tracking Finnerty's cellphone "until it went dead." The terrain made the search for the 6-foot-3, 230-pound ex-athlete difficult, Hilts said.

"This is the last river that I'd pick to fish," he said, citing logjams and dense brush. "And it's a very tough river to navigate."

Searchers from the sheriff's office, state police and area fire departments fanned out Tuesday across a square-mile area of Webber Township, which is about 65 miles north of Grand Rapids.

In addition, dozens of current and former Grand Valley State players, coaches and staff hopped on a bus and headed north to Lake County to lend a hand in the search effort.

Grand Valley coach Matt Mitchell, who was a defensive assistant when Finnerty led the Lakers to national titles in 2005 and 2006, as well as former Grand Valley coach and current Notre Dame offensive coordinator Chuck Martin were among those helping out.

Finnerty, who starred at Brighton High School, originally accepted an offer to play at the University of Toledo but transferred to Grand Valley after redshirting in 2001.

The dual-threat QB played for Grand Valley teams that won Division II titles in 2003, 2005 and 2006. He briefly was a member of the Baltimore Ravens and later the Denver Broncos.

Mitchell said Finnerty was "held in very high regard. He was the starting quarterback on national championship teams. But he's more than that: He's one of the most loyal teammates we've ever had."

Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly was Grand Valley's coach during the 2003 national championship season.

"It's very chilling," Kelly said Tuesday, before Finnerty's body was found. "He led me to a national championship as a true freshman. When I left, coach Martin took over and won two more national championships. My heart goes out to the family and to his beautiful wife."

___

AP reporter Tom Coyne in South Bend, Ind., contributed to this story.

___

Mike Householder can be reached at mhouseholder(at)ap.org and http://twitter.com/mikehouseholder

Sacred is a step in a bold new direction for WLIW21. "We are all excited to do something global, and something that's ambitious for public television," says Neal Shapiro, president and CEO of WNET, WLIW21's parent company. "Sacred will take full advantage of the international, accessible nature of 21st century filmmaking, and will also fulfill a key mission of public media, giving voice to those who might not otherwise be represented in the media."

Even before the filming period has begun, worldwide interest has been keen. The production team has already fielded ideas from people in 55 countries from every continent except Antarctica. With WNET President Emeritus and polar explorer William F. Baker as Executive Producer, there are even plans to solicit footage from McMurdo Station, the U.S. base at the South Pole. "We will not rest until Sacred is truly global, even if I have to go back to the South Pole myself," says Baker.

Filming ideas received by the production team range from the familiar, like Christmas in Bethlehem, to the exotic, like Qoyllur Rit'i, an annual mass pilgrimage to a glacier in a remote Peruvian valley. But the key idea of Sacred is that any sacred occasion is on the table, whether overtly religious or not.

Examples might include: a rite of passage, a pilgrimage, a religious holiday from a personal point of view, a daily ritual, a family tradition, or a trip to an especially beautiful place. The producers have screened sample footage of priests in India bathing in the Ganges, shamans in the jungles of Latin America, and even a woman praying fervently for her team to win a soccer game.

The sheer variety of what "sacred" can mean is a major reason that the film is being crowd-sourced. Rather than judge what is or is not sacred, the producers decided to turn the question over to their collaborators: anyone with a camera and a desire to share their sacred moments with the world.

"Even if you are not religious or spiritual, there is something in your life that you consider sacred. That's what this film will capture and what we want to help you share with the world," says Executive Producer Julie Anderson.

To avoid favoring any one faith, the 2013 and 2014 summer solstices were chosen to bookend the filming period. As the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, the summer solstice is the closest thing to a "universal new year's day."

Sacred is the brainchild of William F. Baker, who sees the film as a capstone to his long and distinguished media career. Baker, who helped launch Religion & Ethics Newsweekly and produced two award-winning films about religious art during his tenure as WNET's president, says he wants Sacred to venture beyond the traditional, talking-head style documentary.

Sacred will premiere in 2015 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City and The Israel Museum in Jerusalem. An original score will be composed by Edward Bilous, a professor at The Juilliard School and a film composer who has worked with PBS, NBC, HBO, and Disney, among others.

Major initial funding for Sacred was provided by George and Abby O'Neill.

Sacred is executive produced by Stephen Segaller, William F. Baker, and Julie Anderson, and is produced by Lan Trinh.

About WNETIn 2013, WNET is celebrating the 50th Anniversary of THIRTEEN, New York's flagship public media provider. As the parent company ofandand operator of , WNET brings quality arts, education and public affairs programming to over 5 million viewers each week. WNET produces and presents such acclaimed PBS series as , , , ,and a range of documentaries, children's programs, and local news and cultural offerings available on air and online. Pioneers in educational programming, WNET has created such groundbreaking series as ,andand provides tools for educators that bring compelling content to life in the classroom and at home. WNET highlights the tri-state's unique culture and diverse communities through , ,and , the multi-platform news magazine focusing on the New York region. WNET is also a leader in connecting with viewers on emerging platforms, including thewhere users can stream PBS content for free.

Website:

SOURCE WLIW21

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three congressional hearings during the past week have allowed lawmakers to vent their anger at the U.S. tax agency for its targeting of conservative groups for extra scrutiny, but the sessions have yielded few answers about who was responsible.

The frustration on Capitol Hill seemed to reach a crescendo on Wednesday when Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service official who first acknowledged the targeting - and the day's star witness before a House panel - refused to testify.

Lerner, whom lawmakers have accused of providing false information to Congress because she did not tell them about the problems in the office she leads before revealing them at a lawyers' conference on May 10, told lawmakers that she had done nothing wrong.

She then invoked her constitutional right not to incriminate herself, and declined to answer questions.

"I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations, and I have not provided false information to this or any congressional committee," Lerner told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

"Because I am asserting my right not to testify, I know that some people will assume that I have done something wrong. I have not," she said.

The scene marked the latest in a series of failed attempts by lawmakers to pry details from high-level IRS officials about who precisely was responsible for targeting conservative groups that have sought tax-exempt status since 2010.

The scandal over what a Treasury inspector general called "inappropriate" targeting of groups with names that included terms like "Tea Party" and "Patriot" by the IRS has become a distraction for Democratic President Barack Obama as he pursues an ambitious second-term agenda.

And as Republicans in Congress seek to determine whether the White House might have had a hand in encouraging the extra scrutiny of populist groups that seek lower taxation and less government, the scandal has fueled Republicans' portrayals of an indifferent, overreaching federal bureaucracy.

The Justice Department has opened a criminal probe into the targeting scandal.

On Wednesday, former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, who unlike Lerner had appeared at a Senate hearing on Tuesday, again was asked who was behind the targeting done in the IRS office in Cincinnati, Ohio.

And again, Shulman said that he had no names to provide. Like outgoing acting IRS commissioner Steven Miller, whom Obama has fired, Shulman also rejected accusations that he had misled or lied to lawmakers about the matter.

"I answered truthfully based on the information that I had at the time," Shulman said.

Shulman's answers did not satisfy many lawmakers. "Either there was a cover-up or an extreme lack of curiosity on your part," said Republican Representative Mark Meadows from North Carolina.

House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa released documents including internal emails between Cincinnati workers and Holly Paz, an IRS director in Washington who led an internal review of the matter in 2012. They seem to confirm the Treasury inspector general's conclusion that low-level employees came up with the controversial criteria.

"This is criteria the screening group came up with," Cindy Thomas, a Cincinnati-based IRS employee wrote to Paz in a June 2, 2011 email.

'THAT'S NOT THE WAY IT WORKS'

Issa and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle became exasperated that the officials on Wednesday provided so few answers about the scandal and whether there was a cover-up.

Lerner is seen as central to the scandal because she was alerted in June 2011 that the partisan criteria were being used, and she ordered them changed. They were then changed back in January 2012 to focus on the policy positions of organizations, but is it not clear who changed them.

Issa and other Republicans also questioned whether Lerner technically waived her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination by reading an opening statement declaring her innocence.

Republican Trey Gowdy of South Carolina demanded that she stay to answer questions, drawing applause from the crowd in the hearing room. "You don't get to tell your side of the story and then not be subject to cross-examination. That's not the way it works," Gowdy said.

Lerner has hired high-powered Washington attorney William Taylor to help defend her against accusations from Issa that she provided "false or misleading" information to Congress last year about the IRS' treatment of conservative groups.

Taylor, of the law firm Zuckerman Spaeder, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday that there was no point in Lerner agreeing to answer lawmakers' questions at the hearing.

"Why should she go up there and confront people who have already decided she has done something wrong?" Taylor said.

After conferring with aides, Issa dismissed Lerner from the hearing but said he might call her to testify in the future.

CONGRESS IN THE DARK

At Wednesday's hearing, frustrated lawmakers repeatedly criticized former IRS chief Shulman and J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general who published a watchdog report on the practice last week, for not alerting Congress to the practice earlier.

Democratic Representative Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts warned their failure to be more forthcoming could force the appointment of a special prosecutor to look into the scandal.

Issa noted that the IRS internal review uncovered the policy of scrutinizing conservative groups in May 2012 and that top officials, including Miller, were made aware of the findings but did not alert Congress for nearly a year.

He also questioned why George's investigators looking into the targeting allowed IRS officials to be present during interviews with subordinates, and he criticized the inspector general for waiting 10 months to give the committee information on the targeting.

George said it would have been "impractical for us to give you partial information that may not be accurate."

Shulman repeated testimony he gave at the Senate hearing on Tuesday that he did not know the full details of the targeting for two years after it started in 2010. Issa told Shulman, "If you didn't know, you were derelict in your duty."

Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the panel, criticized Shulman for not correcting congressional testimony he gave in March 2012 denying that targeting was occurring, after learning the results of the IRS internal review in May 2012.

"Why didn't you ever come back to the Congress to explain that you were mistaken?" Cummings asked.

"I didn't have all the facts, I didn't know what was on the list, exactly how it was used," Shulman said. He later acknowledged he "would have answered differently" in March 2012 if he had known what he did in May 2012.

Cummings also said the panel would like to hear from Daniel Werfel, the White House budget official who started on Wednesday as the new IRS head after Obama fired Miller last week.

Werfel is conducting a 30-day review of the IRS and is due to report back to Obama about how to correct failures that led to the targeting and how to hold IRS staff accountable for inappropriate actions.

(Additional reporting by Casey Sullivan; Writing by John Whitesides; Editing by Karey Van Hall and Tim Dobbyn)

Reggie White, Bruce Smith, Lawrence Taylor they all followed the lead set by Jones, who died Monday at 74.

"Deacon Jones was one of the greatest players in NFL history. Off the field, he was a true giant," said Redskins general manager Bruce Allen, whose father, George, coached Jones with the Los Angeles Rams. "His passion and spirit will continue to inspire those who knew him. He was a cherished member of the Allen family and I will always consider him my big brother."

Not only was Jones the main practitioner of the sack in his 14 pro seasons, he coined the term. He once compared bringing down quarterbacks to hog-tying them in a sack. He was smiling when he said it.

Yet Jones never got the statistical credit for all those QB knockdowns; sacks didn't become an official statistic in the NFL until 1982.

Jones retired after the 1974 season, having played 11 years with the Rams, two with the Chargers and one with the Redskins. Rams stats show Jones with 159 1/2 sacks for them and 173 1/2 for his career all unofficial, of course. Jones also was one of the most durable players, missing just five games in his pro career.

He entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1980.

"He was an icon among the icons," Commissioner Roger Goodell said. "Even with his fellow Hall of Famers, Deacon Jones held a special status. He was a hard-charging football player and the original sack artist who coined the term. He is warmly regarded by his peers not only as one of the greatest players in NFL history, but also for his tremendous influence and sense of humor."

Jones was held in such high esteem that when he made the league's 75th anniversary all-time squad, it prompted former teammate and fellow Hall of Famer Jack Youngblood to say: "Deacon Jones has been the most inspirational person in my football career."

That sort of praise was typical for Jones, the anchor of the Fearsome Foursome. Jones made the Pro Bowl every year from 1964-70 and played in eight overall. He combined with Hall of Famer Merlin Olsen, Rosey Grier and Lamar Lundy on a defensive line that at times was unblockable.

Olsen died in 2010 at 69 and Lundy died in 2007 at 71. Grier, 80, is the only surviving member of the Fearsome Foursome.

George Allen, who coached the Fearsome Foursome, called Jones the "greatest defensive end of modern football." The Allen family had Jones present George Allen for his Hall of Fame induction in 2002, yet another example of the regard in which Jones was held.

"Not only to coin the term sack, but just his personality of being a defensive lineman; his charisma and his presence," Smith, the career sacks leader by official count with 200, told NFL Network. "When he walked into the room, he commanded respect, whether it was on the playing field or his choice of words. This is going to be a great loss for all of the football nation, the fans and particularly those who loved him dearly like myself."

After he retired, Jones appeared in some TV commercials and later began an eponymous foundation in Anaheim Hills, Calif., that encourages youngsters from inner-city schools to become leaders in their community.

The Redskins said Jones died of natural causes. In 2009, he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he had undergone lung surgery and received a pacemaker. That year, the Rams retired his jersey number, 75.

As for that nickname, well, when Jones joined the Rams out of Mississippi Valley State as a 14th-round draft pick in 1961, he wanted to make himself memorable. Eventually, he'd do so every game on the field, terrorizing blockers, runners and passers.

At first, though, he believed he needed to stand out on the roster.

"No one would remember a player named David Jones there are a thousand David Joneses in the phone book," he said. "I picked out Deacon because it has a religious connotation and it would be remembered in the violent pro football world. When the Rams sent out my player questionnaire, I simply listed my name as Deacon Jones. From then on, that's what I was."