Martin Mayhew...

Played opposite Deion and held his own, made few mistakes as I recall, did the right things on and off the field. A great Nole.

What made the teams of the mid-late 80’s speical was the kinds of kids we were recruiting then— a lot of solid citizen types who glued the team together and payed over their heads. Kids like Lawrence Dawsey and Dexter Carter.

Combined with Mickey on defense and Wayne McDuffy on offense (who, like Trickett, took nodody OL and made them AA’s), they set the stage for what would come.

How can anyone really root against the Lions nowadays?

Isn’t that like kicking a man after he’s been slapped, punched, wet-willied, spit in the face, tombstone piledrived, scorpion-deathlocked, kicked in the nuts and TKO’ed with a Karate Kid Crane Kick to the left temple??

CT=187, Sck=1, TFL=2, Int=5, Yds=114, TD=1, PBU=24, FF=1, FR=3, BK=1. 1985 AP All-American Hon. Men.

Mayhew was drafted by the Buffalo Bill in 1988 in the 10th round with pick #262, but was cut at the end of the pre-season. He sat out that first year then caught on with the Redskins the following year (89), where he was a back up CB for 2 years until he earned the starting job in ’91, and one which he never lost again for the rest of his career as long as he was healthy. At the end of the ’92 season, he was traded to Tampa Bay where he was the starter for 4 years until he retired at the end of the 1996 season. During his NFL career he snagged 21 Int. and scored a TD.

Martin is another Seminole who has a Super Bowl Championship ring with the 1992 Redskins. That was a significant for Mayhew because he got a measure of revenge when the Redskins beat the Bills in the Super Bowl, the team that cut him as a rookie, by a score of 37-24.

As you know Mayhew became the GM of the Lions when they fired one time teammate Matt Millen. Millen drove the perennial losing Lions further into the gutter, where they have resided for the last few decades.

One of Mayhew’s first moves as the acting GM before being promoted to GM was a classic. He suckered Jerry Jones and the Cowboys big time by trading disgruntled and slightly above average WR Roy Williams, and a 7th round pick, for a amazing 1st, 3rd, and 6th round pick. Then with the Lions own 1st pick in the last draft they picked Matthew Stafford who is expected to start from day one, and they also loaded up with several other decent rookies from a deal I am sure the Cowboys probably regret.

Did Martin get burned? I think I remember Deddrick Dodge taking a bad angle from his safety help position.

He also attended Trinity Catholic as a youth, where I spent my childhood growing to love the Seminoles, and hate old crusty nuns.