Before he became a professional football player, Broncos punter Sam Martin made pizzas while attending Appalachian State.
“I worked at Pizza Hut, I worked at — I wore many hats while I was in college, just kind of trying to make ends meet,” Martin said on The Michael Rothstein Show last year. “[Division 1] AA at the time, scholarship money wasn’t huge and I was only on a half-scholarship for the first three semesters so I had to get jobs, you know, for when we weren’t playing in season.”
Martin didn’t really think about the possibility of becoming a professional punter until others told him he had the talent for it.
“I kind of only knew what I had heard — that I had a strong leg and, you know, the type of leg that could make it to the NFL — it was just a matter of figuring it out, figuring out how to do it, finding consistency.”
Martin found consistency and was selected by the Lions in the fifth round of the 2013 NFL draft. He spent seven years in Detroit before signing a three-year deal with Denver this offseason. Martin is expected to replace Colby Wadman who, ironically, used to be a pizza delivery driver before joining the Broncos.
Martin shouldn’t have any trouble making ends meet these days. He earned nearly $12 million with the Lions, according to Spotrac.com.
Martin will earn an average of $2.35 million per year in Denver.
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