Mark Pike, a former Buffalo Bills defensive end and special teams player, died on Wednesday, the team announced. He was 57 years old. The Bills revealed that Pike died after a battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, adding that he recently contracted COVID-19 and pneumonia.
“He was a big man who played special teams which was a matchup nightmare for our opponents,” Bills Hall of Famer, Steve Tasker, said on the Bills official website. “He was a unique specimen. His ability to run and play special teams with his versatility was unbelievable.”
Videos by PopCulture.com
Pike was drafted in the seventh round in 1986 from Georgia Tech. He played for the Bills his entire career (1986-1998) and helped the team reach the Super Bowl four consecutive times. Pike led the Bills in special teams tackles in seven of the last eight years with the team and remains the team’s all-time leading special team tackler with 255. That total ranks second all-time in NFL history with New England Patriots special teamer Larry Izzo leading the way with 298.
“Mark was really the centerpiece of our league-leading coverage units,” Tasker said. “I was kind of a wide guy. I was a gunner, and I was an L-2 on the outside. I wasn’t in there with the threes, fours and fives very much. Mark was. So, the physicality of special teams was his wheelhouse, and he would routinely blow people up. So, while I would draw some people out and they would have to defend my speed and my ability to keep leverage and cut the field off, he was a freaking bulldozer man. He was an absolute freight train.”
Former Bills coach Marv Levy also shared his thoughts on Pike. “It had been such a great privilege for me to have been his coach with the Buffalo Bills during the 1990s when Mark had been such an integral part in contributing to the success our teams enjoyed during our four trips to those Super Bowl games and beyond,” Levy said. “Mark was not only an outstanding defensive lineman, linebacker, and special teams standout, but he was the epitome of all that I had ever hoped our players would be like.” According to Statmuse, Pike played in a total of 173 games, tying him for the ninth-most in Bills history.
