Looking back on the career of Raiders QB Daryle Lamonica
By Jason Willis
The Raiders family suffered a terrible loss on Thursday, as Daryle “Mad Bomber” Lamonica passed away at the age of 80.
Raider Nation was shaken to the core when it was announced that legendary quarterback Daryle Lamonica had passed away. One of the best players in franchise history his legacy will not soon be forgotten.
After playing his college football at the University of Notre Dame, Lamonica was not a very highly sought-after prospect. However, he was selected in both the NFL and AFL drafts as his arrival pre-dated the merger by three years.
A 24th-round pick by the Buffalo Bills in the 1963 AFL Draft, he elected to join them instead of the Packers.
He would spend four years in Buffalo where he was mostly a backup to the incumbent, Jack Kemp. Still, the Bills were 4-0 in Lamonica’s starts even though he threw just sixteen touchdowns to 23 interceptions. In 1967 however, he would be traded to the Oakland Raiders.