The Raiders’ Marquette King Became An Elite NFL Punter Thanks To Future’s Mixtapes

Marquette King is not your average punter. In fact, he probably couldn’t be more different than the NFL’s standard at the position.

The Raiders’ punter extraordinaire came into the league undrafted, and he’s renowned for his exorbitant celebrations in a league that has frowned upon fun of any sort. Oh, and he’s black, the only punter or kicker of color in the league. On top of all that, King can back it all up – he’s one of the best punters in the league.

Even the NFL is touting his dance moves.

So what motivated this one-of-a-kind athlete to ascend to these heights, to the tune of a new $16.5 million contract extension this year? Well, apparently Future mixtapes and Travis Porter blaring through his headphones.

King wrote a piece for The Players Tribune Monday morning, telling his story about how he became enamored with kicking and his path to the NFL. It’s a fun read, and King explains how his desire to wow kids at recess with the big, bouncy, red ball basically changed his life, but the diligent work he put forth in college is what truly made him a pro.

Marquette said that while his friends used to go out at night and party, he would “listen to some Future mixtapes on the little laptop speakers for about an hour,” to get jacked up about going to practice punting by himself. Then, he would head to the locked stadium at his college, Fort Valley State, and “hop the fence and make my way over to the fuse box, and from there I was just on my Jason Bourne.”

King would break in, unlock the fuse box and turn on enough stadium lights to kick his three footballs around and see just enough to go find them and kick them again.

“Once my lighting was right,” King wrote in The Players Tribune, “I’d put on my headphones, start my playlist, unzip my duffel bag and feel the leather of the footballs. Then it was on.”

And if Future got him amped to go through his whole breaking and entering schtick to get his practice, what got him going to boot footballs for hours on end?

“All I can say is that those people probably don’t know what it feels like to rip a ball 60 yards into the night sky with only the sounds of Travis Porter bumping in your ears,” King wrote. “For me, it was the best feeling.”

Anybody who has listened to enough Travis Porter can attest to the power of their bass-pounding brand of Atlanta rap, so that makes perfect sense. Still, Marquette might have been motivated by an entirely different artist when he busted out a new dance after a punt to the one-yard line in the Raiders’ win over the Broncos on Sunday night. King told reporters after the game he was just “riding a bronco,” but he just might have had Ginuwine playing in his head.

https://twitter.com/cjzero/status/795472550499405824