Marty Lyons

Martin Anthony Lyons, born January 15, 1957, is a former American football defensive lineman who spent his entire 12-year NFL career with the New York Jets. He played college football at Alabama, where he was a consensus All-American and the SEC Defensive Player of the Year in 1978, capping his senior season with a win in the 1979 Sugar Bowl. Drafted by the Jets in the first round of the 1979 NFL draft, Lyons became a key part of the defensive line known as the New York Sack Exchange. After retiring as a player, he served as a radio analyst for the Jets for 22 seasons, from 2002 to 2023. In 2011, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Lyons grew up in Pinellas Park, Florida, and attended St. Petersburg Catholic High School. At the University of Alabama, he played for coach Bear Bryant from 1975 to 1978, recording 202 tackles, six forced fumbles, and four recoveries. As a senior, he was a consensus first-team All-American and helped Alabama win the 1978 national championship. He was central to the famous "Goal Line Stand" in the 1979 Sugar Bowl; when Penn State quarterback Chuck Fusina asked how far the ball was from the goal line, Lyons replied, "'Bout a foot. You better pass." Alabama went 31–5 during his college career.

The Jets selected Lyons with the 14th overall pick in the 1979 NFL Draft, and in the following round they took defensive end Mark Gastineau. Together with Joe Klecko and Abdul Salaam, they formed the "New York Sack Exchange," one of the NFL's top defensive lines. In 1981, the four combined for 66 sacks, helping the Jets reach the playoffs for the first time since 1969. That November, the four players rang the ceremonial opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, which inspired their nickname. The Jets also made the playoffs in 1982, 1985, and 1986, reaching the AFC Championship Game in 1982, where they lost 14–0 to the Miami Dolphins.

Lyons was involved in a memorable play on October 5, 1986, during a 14–13 Jets win over the Buffalo Bills. After throwing an incomplete pass, Bills quarterback Jim Kelly was punched repeatedly by Lyons, who was flagged for a personal foul by referee Ben Dreith for "giving him the business." Dreith mistakenly assessed the penalty against Gastineau's number 99 instead of Lyons' number 93. During the 1987 season, Lyons missed time after his wife Kelly and son Martin Anthony "Rocky" Lyons Jr. were seriously injured in a car accident in Alabama. Later that season, on Monday Night Football, Lyons blocked former Alabama teammate Dwight Stephenson, a play Dolphins players and coaches called a cheap shot that ended Stephenson's career. Stephenson himself said it was a clean block, explaining he caught his leg as he went down and never blamed Lyons.

In 2002, Lyons joined the Jets radio network, broadcasting alongside Bob Wischusen for 22 seasons. He retired after the 2023 season and moved into an ambassador role with the team. Off the field, inspired by the birth of his eldest son, the death of his father, and the death of a boy he mentored through Big Brothers, Lyons founded the Marty Lyons Foundation, which grants wishes to terminally ill children. He won the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award in 1984 for this work, and in December 2011, the Heisman Trust gave him its sixth annual Heisman Humanitarian Award.

Lyons has been enshrined in the State of Alabama Hall of Fame (2000), Long Island's Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame (2001), Nassau County Sports Hall of Fame (2002), Maryland Sports Hall of Fame (2004), Tampa Bay Sports Club Hall of Fame (2007), and the College Football Hall of Fame (2011). He earned his bachelor's degree from Alabama in December 2016. Lyons and his wife Christine have three children: Jesse, Megan, and Lucas. His son from his first marriage, Rocky, is a physician in Wetumpka, Alabama.