R.I.P. Rod Martin (1954–2026)

 By John Turney

Roderick D. Martin, the hard-hitting right outside linebacker who spent his entire 12-year NFL career with the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders, passed away on April 18, 2026, at the age of 72. The Las Vegas Raiders announced his death the following day, stating in a release, "The Raiders Family is deeply saddened by the passing of Rod Martin, a standout linebacker and key player on two Super Bowl championship teams..."

No official cause of death has been publicly disclosed.

Born on April 7, 1954, in Welch, West Virginia, Martin played college football at USC before being selected by the Raiders in the 12th round of the 1977 NFL Draft. As the story goes, head coach John Madden called his friend John Robinson, then head coach at USC, looking for overlooked talent in the later rounds. Robinson replied that Rod Martin was better than anyone still available. Madden listened—and the Raiders got a steal. Martin’s draft stock was not as high as might have been expected because at that time he weighed in at about 208 pounds.

It was not a bump-free road to Raiders stardom, however. 

He showed well enough in the 1977 training camp that the San Francisco 49ers were willing to give up a draft pick for him. He was with the 49ers for a couple of weeks before being waived. It wasn’t until December that the Raiders re-signed him, and beginning in 1978 he was on his way. That year he played both outside linebacker and filled in at both inside linebacker spots (Mike and Rover in Oakland's terminology) when starters went down.

The year after is when Martin (maybe around 218 pounds by them) quickly developed into a versatile and productive starter at linebacker. He excelled against the run, showed reliable coverage skills, and was a dangerous blitzer. Over his career, he recorded 56½ sacks, forced 14 fumbles (with 10 recoveries), intercepted 14 passes, and scored six defensive touchdowns plus two safeties.

Perhaps most importantly, he was a key part of two Raiders Super Bowl championship teams: Super Bowl XV (1980 season) and Super Bowl XVIII (1983 season).

His most famous performance came in Super Bowl XV against the Philadelphia Eagles, when he picked off Ron Jaworski three times—still, after 45 years, an NFL record for interceptions in a single Super Bowl game. Many argued (us included) that he should have been named MVP of that contest.

At least the performance got him on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and given the stature of that magazine at the time, it is something. 

More than a coverage backer and more than a blitzer, he was an every-down linebacker who was on the field in the Raiders' nickel (Bandit) and dime (Pirate) packages. He would be a star in today’s NFL given his skill set, as an ideal off-ball linebacker in probably a Lavonte David-type role, we’d surmise.

Prior to the NFL, Martin was a solid player at USC—a 1975-76 Trojan letterman—and USC went 19-5 during his career. As a senior in 1976, he made 97 tackles, recovered five fumbles, recorded four pass deflections, and one interception. He also led the Trojans in tackles for loss that season with 17 for 85 yards.

The 1976 All-Conference first teamer helped USC finish 17th in the final AP poll in 1975 and second in 1976. The Trojans played in the 1975 Liberty Bowl and the 1977 Rose Bowl.

Martin earned significant individual recognition during his prime. Here is a thumbnail list of them:

1981: Second-team All-Pro (NEA)
1982: First-team All-Pro (NEA); also Second-team All-Pro
1983: UPI AFC Defensive Player of the Year; multiple All-Pro selections (including NEA and Sporting News) and second-team on the AP team; All-AFC (UPI, PFW)
1984: Consensus First-team All-Pro (AP, PFWA); All-AFC (UPI); Pro Bowl
1985: Second-team All-AFC (UPI); Pro Bowl alternate

It could be argued that his outstanding performance in Super Bowl XV jumpstarted his postseason honors, as we can  that that his all-star run began in 1981 and continued through 1985. However, he was just as good in 1979 as he was in those other years, but the NFL was deep with outstanding outside linebackers at the time, and beating out Hall of Famers Jack Ham, Robert Brazile, Ted Hendricks, and others was a tall order. So he likely had to wait his turn to get invites to Hawaii and votes for All-Pro. In that 1979 season, Martin totaled 115 tackles with 11.5 of them behind the line of scrimmage, not counting his eight sacks.

In all, during his twelve seasons he played in 165 games (147 starts), made 996 total tackles (751 solo), recorded 56.5 sacks, picked off 14 passes, fell on 10 loose balls, and had eight defensive scores, including four pick-sixes and two scoop-and-scores.

Perhaps even more impressive were his playoff performance numbers. 

In 12 games (11 starts), Martin was in on 69 tackles, 52 of them solo. Two of those were on special teams in a playoff game in Baltimore. He had the three interceptions in the Super Bowl and was credited with four other pass breakups. He recorded four sacks in playoff games, forced three fumbles, and recovered one. The man with giant hands—Lyle Alzado once said it was like shaking hands with a cow, comparing Martin’s mitts to an udder!—was a big-time player in big-time games.

Despite all that, Martin never received any serious Hall of Fame consideration. He appeared on the preliminary list three times as a modern-era candidate and has received no attention as a senior candidate either. Maybe that should change.

Martin was the classic late-round success story: undrafted-caliber talent who became a cornerstone of one of the most physical and successful defenses of his era.Rod Martin will be remembered as one of the great low round draft gems in NFL history, a clutch performer on the biggest stage, and a reliable force for the Silver and Black throughout the late 1970s and 1980s.

Rest in peace, #53.

His defensive stats, per NFL Gamebooks.

Ravens Add Uniforms and Tweak Old Ones

 By John Turney 

Much of the design of the Ravens' uniforms remained the same, with only the number trim tweaked while keeping the font the same. The basics of purple, black and white jerseys mixed with pants of the same three colors has been around, some of them since the beginning of the franchise, or agt least when the Browns moved to Baltimore in 1996 and changed their name and colors.

However, new helmets were added to the mix, a purple lid with gold facemask and a black on black alternate helmet with their alternate logo.

Apparently, they are calling the black-one-black "Darkness," with the all-black helmet to top it off.

Okay, fine. Whatever. 

Here, you can see the different trim on the numbers and little feathers around the collars of the purple, white and black jerseys—

And here is a shot where you can see one of the bigger differences, the pants striping. Let's just be grateful there is stiping, and this is workable, as part of the update/modernization. 

Our take is there is nothing wrong with these, nothing wrong with an update, but you kind of get this feeling when you see them: 

Per the Ravens, the purple over white and white over purple will be the usual and the secondary purple "Purple Rising" and the all-black "Darkness" will be the alternates.

As we said, nothing bad here, liked them before and like them now. The tweaks maybe update them a bit, so maybe take a B to a B+ or maybe a B+ to an A-, something like that. Maybe you think differently, but we'll see how much the mix-and-match and if they wear all 12 possible iterations. That will be the make-or-break for these kits. Some of them are very good. Others, well, not so good, yeah we are talking to you purple over black and black over purple!

Uniforms: Commanders -- Two Out of Three Ain't Bad

 By John Turney 

In the last couple of days, the Washington Commanders unveiled a new set of uniforms, two of which are patterned after the old Washington Redskins uniforms introduced in 1979 -- uniforms beloved by Washington fans.

And now they are back, sans the helmet. Plus a black over black kit with a similar logo, but with a spear through ti that has drawn some ire online, but in this day and age, you have to take the good with the bad.

At least the black uniform follows the same striping as the burgundy and white.

These are the old uniforms, the ones the franchise had great success wearing. As you can can see, except for the helmet, they are almost exact duplicates. 

So, the trend back to the middle continues. For a long time Nike went to extremes, with uniforms far outside the NFL mainstream and now the pendulum is swinging back. That is good for the aesthetics of football. No, it can never be the same; the design of the helmets and jerseys, how the sleeves are, the fit, all that does not allow for the same, exact thing to be had. But the trend gets these things as close as they can, given the circumstances and that's a good thing.

Grade: B+

Rams New Uniform Tweaks: And Upgrade

 By John Turney 

The Rams call the "bolder," but they just removed the nonsense. The wordmarks everywhere, the gradient numerals, the split horn shoulder stripe. All those things are better. The egregious horn on the helment, though, remains. 

Gone are the grey uniforms, the so-called "bone," and replaced by white pants and that, too, is an improvement. SO, no grey over grey, no grey over yellow and no grey over blue. Gone. All gone. 

Good.

The short horn was not going to change; they are just too committed to it, so that is life -- you can't have everything, but overall, these look like modern updates of the old Rams uniforms and that is a good thing. 

The bottom line is that these are an upgrade. Slowly but surely, the Nike design of the last decade and a half is being reverted to more classic looks or what amounts to modern versions of classic looks.

The Browns, Jaguars, Lions, Falcons, Commanders and now Rams, some of the worst things Nike did, are now all gone.

Good.

However, there is more. The Rams also posted that there are two more uniforms coming this summer. Speculation is that one will be a yellow jersey to celebrade the days of Crazylegs Hirsch, Tom Fears, Bob Waterfield, Norm Van Brocklin, Deacon Dan Towler, Tank Younger. 

We'll see.

Grade: B (pending the two new kits yet to be released)

The Packer Crew at County Stadium – Not Milwaukee’s Best

 by Nick Webster

Researcher Eric Goska has spent decades chronicling the history of the Green Bay Packers using Books, journalists' notes, media guides, film, and, of course, play-by-plays. In all his studies, Goska has been able to use film to fill in gaps in play-by-plays, but to also to make corrections when they are erroneous; and boy are there opportunities for corrections.  

It’s not quite the national debt clock, but the corrections already number in the 100’s – many as far back as the 40s and 50s, but some as recently as the 1980’s.  And these are not just judgment calls, “Hey, I think John Anderson has more to do with taking down the ballcarrier than Mike Douglass”, these are out-and-out errors.  Some errors are a distinction without a difference, e.g., Charles Johnson’s September 9, 1979, sack of Archie Manning should have been credited for three yards rather than two, but some matter.

In his research, Goska has found that an error in the press box, never corrected, allowed Doug Martin to be the lone leader in QB Sacks in 1982. We’ve done a lot of work on sack stats – if you’re here, you probably know that already – and there was historically lots of leeway in how particular teams counted them.  

Finally, in 1982, the NFL decided that individual sacks would be an official stat with consistent rules and accounting. The League actually trailed the CFL, which officially started keeping track in 1981.  But 1982 was an unusual season, marred by a player strike which shortened the season to a mere nine games.  In such a small sample size, single games or outliers can have outsized effects, and this was certainly the case for the sack title. The anointed sack-champ in ’82 was Viking DE Doug Martin, topping the league with just 11.5 sacks in the shortened season. 

Martin was a solid pass rusher and notched a total of 61.5 sacks over his 10-year career, all with the Vikings.  But the third-year player had only notched five and six sacks, respectively, in his Rookie and Sophomore seasons heading into 1982.  But in ’82, with a mere nine games to play, Martin led the NFL with the lowest leading number in history, and more than half of his 11.5 sacks were in just two solid games. Martin notched three sacks twice in a game at Detroit in the Silver Dome, but also in a game at The Packers in Milwaukee County Stadium. The Packers used their same “professional” crew in the County Stadium Box as they did in Lambeau, and the errors travelled with them.  

In the waning moments of the second quarter, Lynn Dickey dropped back and was slammed to the turf by Defensive End Randy Holloway and Doug Martin. His happy compatriot pumps his fist in the air from ~five yards away.  The announcers Frank Gleiber and recently retired Joe Greene call out Holloway, “I mean, no one touched Randy Holloway, number 75.” One last play, a desperate bomb to James Lofton and the half was over.  But the Packer crew didn’t see it that way; from their perch in County Stadium the Packer crew credited Doug Martin with the downing of Dickey.  And by the time the game came to a close, with 2 others to his credit, Martin had a three-sack game.

A little over a month later, the strike-shortened season became the first NFL season to stretch into the following year. On Jan 2, 1983, going into the final weekend of the season, Philadelphia Eagle Dennis Harrison and Doug Martin were tied for the League sack lead with 10.5 each. But at Home against the Giants – with Doug’s brother George on the opposing team – Harrison would get shut out, staying at 10.5. Doug Martin had till the following day with his Vikings hosting the Cowboys on Monday night in a game famous for a different reason.  

A few days earlier, on December 30th, a hole was torn in the roof of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, and only after emergency repairs and re-inflating the massive dome could the Monday night game proceed.  Doug Martin took advantage of the opportunity. In the 3rd quarter, Martin knocked the ball loose from Danny White’s grip, notching an 11.5 sack and claiming the sack title.

But the November 21st phantom sack awarded to Martin over Holloway was never corrected.  Check any source, NFL.com, Pro-Football-Reference, anywhere you look, that was a three-sack game for Martin, Holloway notching none. We were tickled a few years back to see Bubba Baker’s reaction to the recognition of his 23-sack 1978. We wonder what Dennis Harrison might think if he knew he was rightfully the co-owner of the 1982 NFL sack title?  Can we guarantee that every sack in every gamebook from the early years – including the unofficial history pre ’82 – is correct? Of course not.  There will be other errors, some we will find and correct, some we won’t. Of course, a sack or two here and there won’t invalidate the overall dominance of a Deacon Jones, a Reggie White or a Doug Atkins; but leaders matter, and the record should reflect that in 1982 the sack title was co-owned.

In the years that followed the Quarterback sack started to garner more attention.  Credit Mark Gastineau’s antics, Lawrence Taylor’s greatness and the rivalries in the NFC East between Reggie White, Dexter Manley and Taylor.  By 1986, there was a huge rivalry among the NFC East pass rushers. After week 13, Manley led the league with 17.5, Taylor was right on his heels with 16.5 and Reggie was training with just 12.  But over the final three games, Taylor notched four to Manley’s one, taking the league lead and the NFL Defensive Player of the Year as well as the AP Most Valuable Player award, the last defender to do so.  Reggie picked up six sacks in the final three weeks to reach 18, just a half sack behind Manley. 

The race was on, and the numbers counted.  

Beginning in 1987, Elias, official keeper of the League’s numbers, began issuing “corrected” Gamebooks in mid-week. Errors could be corrected – and often were – a meaningful portion of corrections came on sacks, and we’re better now for the scrutiny.  Unfortunately for Dennis Harrison, the change didn’t come around nearly soon enough. 

More Lavonte David Love – and a Comparison

By Nick Webster

Today, Lavonte David, an all-time great Tampa Bay Buccaneer, retired from the NFL rather than move elsewhere, but will he eventually have to suit up with a different look in Canton? Sadly, I think the likelihood is no, as David is one of the most underrated players in a generation. He is harmed by playing in a small market, by playing at a non “premium” position (whatever that is) by playing in an era when Pro Bowl and All-Pro voters get confused about off-ball versus on-ball OLB’s by coming out of the draft in the same season as Luke Kuechly, Bobby Wagner and Demario Davis (man, was the LB position stacked in 2012) and by speaking softly and letting his play do the talking.

The consensus top off-ball LBs of the era are Luke Kuechly and Bobby Wagner, each were fantastic linebacker, team leader, and star player on Super Bowl-winning teams. David himself has a claim to fame on all these dimensions, though his leadership role on the Buccaneer defense is overshadowed by a guy named Tom Brady. Comparing these great LB’s, David’s numbers stand up well. Look at just how similar David and Wagner’s numbers are – yet Wagner is frequently discussed as “future Hall of Famer” Bobby Wagner. 

The only categories where Wagner has a meaningful lead are on overall tackles (much of which is a vestige of the Seahawks press-box being liberal with assists as Wagner’s ~300 TT lead drops to 22 when you’re counting solo tackles) and QB Hits. David, quite simply, made bigger more impactful plays, more sacks, more forced fumbles and more stuffs (tackling a runner or receiver for a loss).

**You will notice slight differences between the above numbers and those published by John Turney in his salute of David earlier today. Note that two TTs of David’s were made on special teams (these are only on defensive plays) and a couple of plays where play-by-plays were updated on stuffs.

His EPA – Expected Points added – and WPA – Win Probability added – are similar but better. His Defeats, plays for negative yardage or plays resulting in turnovers, including stops short of a first down on third or fourth down, are far higher. David produced.

So, David compares favorably with “future HOFer” Bobby Wagner, but really, Luke Kuechly is the class of the era, right? Kuechley, deservedly, received a nod from the Hall this past year – we cheered it and think he should have been first ballot. But let’s compare just the eight years that Kuechly played to the first eight seasons of David’s career, certainly Luke outplayed him over that period ... think again.

Over their first eight seasons, Luke also led David in TT’s, though in this case, David had MORE Solo Tackles than Kuechly (724 to 690). Kuechly legitimately separated himself in pass D, and this was real, but also a function of the scheme, which more frequently had David covering back in the backfield and Kuechly covering TEs running the seam. Outside of this, David leads in practically every category, even if only slightly.

So, he compares favorably in his era, but where does David fit among the all-time greats?  Well, using play-by-play data, David is the seventh leading tackler of all-time, six tackles behind all-time great Derrick Brooks.  

In stuffs, which we defined earlier, he is literally ranked second all-time behind Junior Seau and ahead of third-ranked Bruce Smith – both first ballot HOFers. Finally, David’s 33 FFs are FAR ahead of any known values of top off-ball LB’s all-time, Dick Butkus - and let’s be clear the record is incomplete – is documented by us (after lots of research) with 27 FF’s, Ray Lewis (well documented) 21, Jack Lambert (quite well documented) 18, Mike Singletary 14, Derrick Brooks 25, etc., etc., etc.

So, should David go from wearing Creamsicle Orange in Tampa to Gold in Canton? It’s our belief that he should. Is he an all-time great, perhaps, but is he a great of his era absolutely? The Hall that has room for Deacon, Gino and Reggie also has room for Claude Humphrey. The Hall that has room for Night Train, Mel Blount and Deion also has room for Lem Barney. And that same Hall that has room for Jack Ham, Derrick Brooks and Bobby Bell also found room for Dave Wilcox – and it needs to find room for Lavonte David too.

Lavonte David Retires: Pro Football Journal’s Tribute to a Tackle Master and One of the Most Underrated Defenders of His Era

 By John Turney 

Tampa Bay Buccaneers legend Lavonte David officially announced his retirement from the NFL on March 24, 2026, after a remarkable 14-year career spent entirely with the franchise that drafted him. At 36 years old, the 12-time team captain and longest-tenured player on the Bucs roster walks away as one of the most consistently productive and versatile linebackers of the modern era. We at Pro Football Journal have long maintained that he has been one of the most criminally underrated defenders of his generation.

David was selected in the second round (58th overall) of the 2012 NFL Draft out of Nebraska. He stepped in immediately as the heartbeat of the Buccaneers’ defense, earning PFWA All-Rookie honors and never relinquishing his starting role. Across 215 games and 215 starts, he compiled 1,716 combined tackles, 42.5 sacks, 14 interceptions, 73 passes defensed, 33 forced fumbles, 21 fumble recoveries, and 145 run/pass stuffs. He earned a Super Bowl LV ring in 2020, first-team All-Pro honors in 2013, two second-team All-Pro selections (2016 and 2020), and a Pro Bowl nod in 2015.

Those numbers, impressive as they are, only begin to tell the story. For more than a decade, we have highlighted David’s excellence through film study and advanced metrics that truly reveal his impact.

In our September 2024 piece “What We’re All Missing About Bucs’ Lavonte David,” we pointed out that he has been perpetually overlooked by AP All-Pro voters and Hall of Fame discussions, yet the plays that actually win football games paint a far different picture. 

David has repeatedly led the league—or finished near the top—in run/pass stuffs (tackles for loss or minimal gain at or behind the line of scrimmage), a metric we track closely at Pro Football Journal, thanks to Nick Webster. His ability to diagnose plays instantly, pursue with outstanding speed, and finish in the backfield against both the run and in coverage has been elite for years.

We've written then that “he has been so good for so long but always seems to be overlooked.” That sentiment held true across multiple seasons. In our All-Pro selections, we gave him first-team four times and second-team three times. Additionally, we named him All-NFC ten times (nine of those first team). Only Pro Football Focus picked him about as often for “alls”, choosing him five times for their All-Pro team, but at least they outdistanced AP and PFWA.

When assembling our 2010s All-Decade Team, we selected David as our Will linebacker and called him one of the top three linebackers of the decade. We noted that the Hall of Fame would almost certainly favor traditional middle linebackers, but when judged by actual production, David’s body of work is undeniable.

In pieces on unsung tackle masters, we have ranked him seventh all-time in authentic play-by-play tackles in the post-1999 era and second only to Junior Seau in career stuffs with 145, while tying Seau for the most seasons with double-digit stuffs (eight). “His impact stands out beyond volume,” we have written repeatedly, urging evaluators to focus on the tape and the numbers rather than market size or team wins and losses.

David’s versatility has always set him apart. He could cover like a defensive back, blitz with precise timing, and—most impressively—stuff runs with the instincts of a throwback 1990s great. We have often described him as a modern-day “poor man’s Derrick Brooks.” However, that may be shorting David with that observation. There are some things he did better than the Bucs Hall-of-Fame off-ball linebacker, blitzing for example, but in terms of perceived careers, if you just go by the All-Pros/Pro Bowls, then yeah, David does look poor in comparison, but in our view, not in skill.

Even in his final seasons, he continued to produce efficiently, climbing all-time tackle charts with legitimate, reviewed statistics and defying the effects of age. Off the field, David embodied leadership as a 12-time captain chosen by his teammates. In his emotional retirement press conference, he spoke movingly of his parents’ sacrifices, the joy of fatherhood, and playing the game for the pure love of it. “God is amazing,” he reflected on a journey he never imagined would last 14 years in one place.

As the Buccaneers turn the page without their longtime defensive anchor, our verdict at Pro Football Journal remains unchanged: Lavonte David was an elite, durable, playmaking linebacker whose sustained excellence belongs in the conversation with the very best of his generation. The Hall of Fame may take its time—voters have missed on him before—but the tape, the advanced stats, and the respect of those who study the game most deeply do not lie.

Thank you, Lavonte. Fourteen years of quiet, relentless greatness. One of the true tackle masters of the modern NFL. You will be missed on Sundays, but your legacy at One Buc Place—and on our pages—is secure.

Career stats—