Former Raiders, Bills QB Daryle Lamonica Has Died

The former Oakland star was an NFL All-Pro and an AFL MVP and championship-winning quarterback.

Daryle Lamonica, a former quarterback for Notre Dame, the Bills and Raiders, died Thursday, the Associated Press first reported. He was 80.

Lamonica’s son Brandon told The New York Times that his father died in his sleep. No cause of death has been revealed, but he was not in poor health, his son said.

Once a Raider, always a Raider.

Remembering Daryle Lamonica. pic.twitter.com/LmRKyDqxif

— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) April 21, 2022

While Lamonica played long before the modern pass-heavy version of the game, his big arm earned him the nickname “The Mad Bomber.” In 12 seasons with the Bills and Raiders, he finished with an impressive 66-16-6 record, throwing for 19,154 yards, 164 touchdowns and 138 interceptions. He also ran for 14 touchdowns. 

In the AFL, he won a pair of MVP awards with the Raiders in 1967 and ’69, and was the AFL championship game MVP in ’67. He won a pair of AFL titles with the Bills in ’64 and ’65, before winning with the Raiders in ’67, his first year with the team.

After playing for the Fighting Irish, he was taken by the Bills in the 24th round of the 1963 AFL draft and the 12th round of the NFL draft that same year by the Packers. He opted to play for Buffalo, serving as a run-first player behind Bills QB Jack Kemp before being traded to Oakland in 1967. That year, the team went 13–1 and beat the Houston Oilers in the AFL championship before falling to the Packers in Super Bowl II.

He was a second-team NFL All-Pro in 1970, the first season after the AFL-NFL merger. As his playing time began to slide in 1973, he eventually gave way to fellow Raiders great Ken Stabler. After a final NFL season in ’74, he played one year in the upstart World Football League for the Southern California Sun.

An avid outdoorsman, Lamonica also hosted a fishing show, Outdoors With the Pros, for Fox Sports Net.