Nebraska football Blackshirt legend makes case for Hall of Fame in historic outing

Until now, when people think about the former Nebraksa football player who was the most dominant defender in the NFL, Neil Smith is probably right at the top of the list. Ndamukong Suh is up there as well. But the one who simply, for whatever reason doesn’t get enough credit is Lavonte David.

Perhaps the former Husker will get a bit more attention now that he’s done what he did on Sunday. And what he did on Sunday is reach a mark that has only been reached one other time in his team’s history. David recorded his 1,500th tackle of his career. 

On the Tampa Bay Bucs, only Derrick Brooks has more career tackles than the former Nebraska football star. And considering the linebacker doesn’t seem to be slowing down, it’s possible he could be at the top of that list by the end of his career.

David’s first tackle of the day, marked the 1,500th of his career. But he wasn’t done there. David recorded a strip sack of Jalen Hurts, marking his 30th career forced fumble – tied for most among active players with Khalil Mack. To put the exclamation mark on his resumé, David took down Hurts a second time, signifying his fourth career game with two-plus sacks (first since 2018). Now with 35.5 sacks, David has sole possession of seventh place in franchise history.

Ex-Nebraska football star makes case for Hall of Fame

David made his case for the Hall in a big way as he finished the historic day with 8 tackles and he even had a pass defended.

Brooks finished his NFL career with 1,698 tackles. David is currently sitting at 1,508. Assuming he finishes the season with his usual number of tackles of about 120 in a season, he would be about 98 tackles behind Brooks’ career number.

It might take just one more season for the former Nebraska football star to make himself the top tackler in the history of the Tampa Bay Bucs.