With voters heading to polls on Super Tuesday voting and election season underway, one Houston Texans player might be having flashbacks to his own presidential campaign.
Back in high school, outside linebacker Jacob Martin once ran for student-body class president. A sophomore at Cherokee Trail High School in Aurora, Colorado, Martin was an all-round athlete who played soccer, martial arts, basketball, but wanted to run for office too.
"Yeah I did," Martin said in a December interview on Texans Radio. "I lost, but I still call myself 'Mr. President.'"
In his first season with the Texans, Martin recorded 11 tackles (six solo), three tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, seven quarterback hits and one forced fumble. After his performance in the AFC Wild Card game against the Buffalo Bills, the second-year linebacker also became the first player in franchise history to record a sack and fumble recovery in the same playoff game.
"All I know about Jacob Martin is he plays 100 miles an hour and he's a great teammate," head coach and general manager Bill O'Brien said last year. "He's awesome in the locker room, meetings, you should see the way the guy practices. I mean, he practices, he's out there every day, he doesn't complain about it, he just goes to work. I think when you have that type of work ethic, you're to going to get better, and I think that's what Jacob does. He tries to approach every day and tries to get better."
Martin's transition into the linebackers group was seamless, despite being traded from the Seattle Seahawks just prior to the regular season opener on Sept. 9 at New Orleans. Martin even became a part of a group of linebackers who referred to themselves as "The Rock Boyz" sometime last season. Even though he wouldn't run for president again, Martin liked the leadership qualities he saw in his teammates.
"B-Mac (Benardrick McKinney) for sure, I would say B-Mac would be the president," Martin said. "Zach (Cunningham) would be the House Chair, Whitney Mercilus would be the Vice-President, Scar (Brennan Scarlett) would be the Secretary of Defense, I myself would not work in the White House. Have you seen the show 'Scandal?' I would be like the fixer."
