Marquette King is more than the NFL’s most fun punter

He’s one of the best and most athletic players at his position. He has a variety of celebrations catered to his opponents that bring smiles to those watching. He also plays with a fire and passion rarely matched in the game today.

And he’s a punter.

We’re of course talking about the Oakland Raiders’ Marquette King.

King’s Sundays are lit when he watches the 3 on the down marker shuffle into a 4. That’s his Bat-signal. It’s time for King to enter the field and pin his opponent deep into their own territory.

He’s been named the AFC Special Teams Player of the Week twice in his career, most recently in Week 7.

The average starting field position for the Raiders defense is at the 25-yard line, according to Football Outsiders, fourth best in the league. King averages 48.2 yards per punt, and 27 of his punts have landed inside the opponent’s 20-yard line, which ties him for fourth in the league and the best of any punter with fewer than 60 punts.

“The only thing I think about is: catch the ball and don’t try to kill the ball because I know I’m the best punter on this field right now,” King said in an interview this week with SB Nation.

“Nobody’s better than me, nobody looks better than me, and it’s whatever.” King adds, “After that, I don’t think about nothing else, I just do it.”

King won the Raiders’ starting punting job in 2013, but wasn’t as happy as he should have been because he felt he was being silenced by then-head coach Dennis Allen.

“It was a struggle at first because, if I hit a good punt, it’s like they want me to walk off; and I feel like I’m going to just explode into confetti.”

That wasn’t King. He wasn’t going to be held back.

“I’m looking at it like, ‘Man, all this work I put into what I do. It’s a blessing to be here and I’m going to let that out.’”

The Raiders fired Allen four games into the 2014 season. Tony Sparano took over in the interim.

Oakland hired Jack Del Rio in January of 2015, and everything changed. Del Rio didn’t place restrictions on King’s personality, like Allen and his coaching staff did. King was allowed to break out and be himself.

His “confetti” has been his celebrations, the ones that people anticipate after his booming kicks. Each week, he has an idea of what he will be doing when his number is called and his deed has been done.

“When the Panthers were coming in, I knew what Cam Newton became popular for, so I was like, ‘You know what, I might just start dabbin’ this whole game.’”

When the Raiders played the Panthers in Week 12, that’s just what he did.

“Shoot, like if we play the Chiefs, I’m gonna do the little tomahawk. If we play the Broncos, I’m going to ride the Bronco.”

Sure enough, he saddled up, and rode the Bronco on Sunday night in Week 9.

His best work may have come in Week 13, when he did what few NFL players have dared to do: Pick up the referee’s penalty flag.

King did the only thing he knew to do when he got his hands on it. He danced.

King doesn’t do it because he loves the attention or he’s trying to impress anybody. He does it because this is who he is.

“I do what I need to do to help my team out,” King said. “And then when it comes to the celebrating part, it’s just what I do to keep me going and help me stay focused and have fun so it doesn’t feel like a job.”

He’s the guy who came into training camp with a green Power Rangers mask on. It wasn’t because he lost a bet, it’s simply because that’s what he likes to do. He thinks the green one is the best of all the Power Rangers.

“I just randomly do it, man,” King said. “Shoot, I might wake up and feel like putting on that Superman outfit, and I just go in my car. I might just put it on and walk around the crib with it.”

“Shit I might go to the store with it on, if I feel like it. It’s just me, it’s just what I like to do sometimes. I just like having fun man, living life.”

That’s Marquette. He likes to be happy. It’s a driving force for everything that he does. He’s a big fan of the rapper Future, largely because of the vibe he puts off.

“The music that he has now is legendary,” he says. “I’m not going to sit here and say I listen to the lyrics of the song, but I think he focuses on more of the vibe that the song can put in the atmosphere.”

King also happens to be the only black punter in the NFL. There have only been a handful in history: Horace Gillom, Greg Coleman, Reggie Roby, and Rodney Williams. But King says he isn’t focused on that. He feels that punters, regardless of color, are underappreciated.

“When I was punting, of course you had people that were talking trash like, ‘Man you’re a punter you don’t do nothing,’” he said. “And I think some of the kids tell other kickers and punters that even now, and kind of downplay the position like it’s not important.

“The funny thing about it is that when a fourth down comes, and the team doesn’t have a good punter or a good kicker, then everybody’s complaining. It’s the people that don’t really understand how the game goes that think punters and kickers are nothing.”

King didn’t idolize any athletes growing up, and still found the inspiration that led him to being the punter for one of the NFL’s best teams. He has always done what he wanted, been himself, and had fun while doing it.

It started on a playground in Macon, Ga., when King was in grade school. He and his classmates would play with a rubber ball on the playground. Kids would get together on opposite ends of the field, and the object was to simply kick the ball as high in the air as possible.

“They got excited every time I kicked the ball in the air. I thought it was pretty cool,” King said.

His gradual and growing interest in football had a few factors, one of which was his cousins. They didn’t play professional sports, but they were all great athletes that King played with growing up — whether it was with a bottle top covered in tape to make a ball or the little footballs passed out at Macon Knights games.

King also came up in Georgia at a seminal time in Atlanta sports: when Michael Vick was taking the NFL by storm.

“I didn’t really care much about the team,” he said. “I think I watched more Michael Vick action than anything.”

Vick was different. He was usually the fastest player on the field, had amazing commercials with Nike like “The Michael Vick Experience,” and became arguably the greatest Madden player of all time.

“He was just a beast, man,” King said. “I used to just love watching him play on the video game.”

That, combined with seeing a family friend play in high school, sparked his interest.

“I was like, ‘Man you know what, I think I want try to see what this sport’s about, it looks cool.’”

King gave it a go, and it took him to Fort Valley State University, where he played under head coach Donald Pittman. He started as a wide receiver, but the team had plenty. After seeing King punt the ball as far and as high as he did, Pittman knew where he needed him.

“Coach Pittman put me in his office and said, ‘Man you know what, if you want your scholarship, you got to be a punter only and focus on punting.’”

That’s what King did. He worked with assistant Glenn Holmes, and after four years of impressive hang time at FVSU, signed with the Raiders as an undrafted free agent in 2012.

Jack Del Rio was the best thing that could have happened to King and the Raiders.

“He’s a real good dude, he’s a player’s coach,” King said. “He listens to what other players have to say. He basically talks to us and tries to condition us to always stay focused on our job.”

King added that the change in culture was huge for the team as a whole. “He’s really good at making people feel like family ... he’s just a great teacher.”

Del Rio’s certainly gotten a lot of credit for the success of the Raiders, but King also pointed out some veteran additions that have flown under the radar and positively impacted the team in many ways.

“A lot of the people that the Raiders have brought in from other teams that have been in a situation where they were in the playoffs, or Super Bowls,” he said. “When you have people like Bruce Irvin, or Malcolm [Smith] or Sean Smith — players that have been in that situation and the position we’re trying to get into — they can teach Khalil [Mack] how to get here, me how to get there.”

Derek Carr’s development has impressed King, as well.

“Derek’s just grown to understand the game a lot more. You can definitely tell the game has slowed down a lot for him,” he said.

Carr’s leadership and work ethic stands out to King.

“He spends a lot of time in the quarterback room trying to understand how the game is supposed to be played,” King said. “He watches film to the point where he can understand other peoples’ tendencies. He’s one of the first people in the facility, and one of the last people to leave.”

The pieces that have been put in place and their development — thanks to their environment — have turned the Raiders into a Super Bowl contender. King’s not going to be throwing or receiving touchdown passes, but when the Raiders offense isn’t cutting it, he’s going to pick up the slack and give them some good field position to work with.

This is what Del Rio has built in Oakland — a team once viewed as the most unstable and disorganized in the NFL. It’s been crafted from the quarterback and his weapons, to the defense. And the punter, who just happens to be one of our favorite personalities in the NFL.

King doesn’t care what people think about him. He’s going to celebrate and enjoy the game in the same manner that gets wide receivers called divas. He’s going to dress up when he damn well feels like it, and won’t apologize to anybody for it.

“I go out every day practicing, just trying to be the best, and with the mindset of having fun at the same time.” King said.

This is who he is. It’s how he got here, and he’s not going away anytime soon.