Derrick Jensen, a longtime scout with the Seahawks who won a Super Bowl ring as a player for the Raiders, died Friday after a five-year fight with ALS.
Derrick Jensen, a longtime scout with the Seahawks who won two Super Bowl rings as a player for the Raiders, died Friday after a five-year fight with ALS.
The Seahawks announced his passing at the age of 60 on Friday and that the team’s draft room at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center will be renamed the Derrick Jensen Draft Room in his honor.
Jensen was taken in the third round by the Raiders in 1978 and played nine years for the team, winning Super Bowl rings following the 1980 and 1983 seasons. He blocked a punt for a touchdown to spark a 38-9 win over Washington in Super Bowl XVIII. A running back, fullback and tight end, Jensen server many years as the Raiders’ special teams captain.
Jensen then joined the Seahawks’ scouting department in 1991 and spent 22 years with the team, given credit for helping the team find the likes of undrafted free agents Leonard Weaver, Jordan Babineaux and Ricardo Lockette as well as seventh-round offensive line J.R. Sweezy in 2012.
He retired as a scout in 2012 to battle ALS.
“He’s a huge part of the Seahawks organization,” general manager John Schneider said in a statement. “He was just a classic. There are those guys who are the hidden characters of the National Football League, and he was one of those guys among all the scouts throughout the league. Everybody legitimately loved being at a school with him, scouting with him, going to grab a beer with him, whatever.”
The opinions expressed in reader comments are those of the author only, and do not reflect the opinions of The Seattle Times.