This podcast:

https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-6d3cr-dd53cb

It’s Chris Peak’s interview with Curtis Martin, and it’s perhaps the best former-Pitt-player interview I’ve heard, ever.  Just extremely authentic, eye opening, and informative.  Martin is a guy who played during some down years at Pitt, but went on to a very successful career in the NFL (and when I say very successful…the man is in The NFL Hall of Fame).  The things he has to say about his time at Pitt, and pre-Pitt are really, really interesting.

The only area the Peak doesn’t explore, but Martin touches on a couple of times, are Martin’s philanthropic activities.

As an active NFL player, he founded the Curtis Martin Job Foundation, which provides financial and hands-on support for single parents, youth charities, individuals with disabilities as well as low-income housing providers. The foundation has also made an international impact, working to send doctors to developing nations to perform operations on underprivileged and uninsured patients.
 
This past May (2019), Martin received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City for his foundation’s work. In 2018, the Congressional Award Foundation presented him with the Horizon Award, which honors individuals from the private sector who have worked to expand opportunities for all Americans through their own personal contributions.

While Martin apparently keeps a low profile on the web (Google can’t point me to a Curtis Martin Web foundation website), he’s extremely active.  Per an article on Yahoo sports about one year ago:

[Read article for context I am uncomfortable publishing here]

Once Martin began receiving his NFL paychecks in 1995, he began setting aside 12 to 15 percent of each to go toward his foundation; he now puts 20-25 percent of his earnings toward it.

He is the sole financial supporter of the organization.

Again, in this interview (if you haven’t listened to it already), you’ll hear as authentic a man as you ever will, Pitt man or not.  Give it a listen.  And while Martin may not have been a Pitt man in the past, I think we should all be proud to call him a Pitt man now and in the future.

Hail to Pitt

Michaelangelo Monteleone

Michaelangelo holds a degree in Travel Writing from the University of Pittsburgh. He was a former staff writer for InPittsburgh Newsweekly, and currently resides near Atlanta, Georgia. He has been a Pitt fan since 1997 after he witnessed Pitt upset #22 Miami on Thursday night at Pitt Stadium.

55 thoughts on “Listen to this Podcast”

  1. Wow! Just wow! Thanks for a positive moment in these less-than-positive times we are in Mike. So good, I actually read it twice. Now excuse me while I go back and read it again……

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  2. Martin was also during my time. Don’t recall his exploits on the field. I knew swervin curvin given he lived on my floor. Martin did have a HOF career but his time at Pitt was unspectacular to me. A fine Pitt man however and that means far more than the numbers you put up. Life is more than numbers.

    Tex

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    1. That’s why you have to listen to the podcast. He straight up owns that he didn’t give Pitt the effort it deserved. Just really refreshing to hear the honesty

      Liked by 1 person

  3. Spindler was an NFL Defensive Player of the Year according to that article. He was a special player who played hurt much of his career. These kinds of players don’t grow on trees and Pitt needs to reach out to bring him back into the family.

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  4. I mentioned this months ago……. J Majors told Martin to hit the bricks. No one believed me then and kudos to Martin for not naming names.

    Spindler is another player not very happy with PITT at this moment.

    Thanks Mike.

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    1. I’ll never get over a decade lost until I’m six feet under. It just shows how going 7-4 is much better than being a 3-8 program. And the nerve of Pitt to charge fans money to attend those games.

      That was also the last decade where there was plenty of talent coming out of western PA.

      Liked by 1 person

  6. I heard his interview on The Fan 2 weeks ago when he discussed how he ‘cheated’ Pitt and frankly, it didn’t make much sense to me. It should be apparent that his decision to leave Pitt early was the right one.

    Nonetheless, he is obviously a great person and a very fine representative of the university and the city.

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  7. Amazing that he was so successful while seemingly having no passion for the game. His ulterior motivation was very strong and has made him bigger than the game.
    Boy could we use a guy with his talent right now. Someone is needed to add to that long list of great Pitt running backs.

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  8. Been busy golfing and drinking yesterday…will listen to the podcast this am.
    I have a game day Curyis Martin jersey that i rarely wear because i dont want to ruin it.😎
    What was his star rating coming out of high school?

    Shout out to DJ Iek once again for his tunes on the previous post…cant get enough Skynyrd!
    God bless America and fly the colors this weekend…never forget those who fought / died for this great country.
    My avatar is a picture of my dad’s hat from the 4th marine division.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Thanks Fran, hat’s off and a hardy salute to your Dad and all the men and women who served this country. Another thing the young ones know nothing about…. the draft and I don’t mean the NFL. Remember when they would pick your birthday out like the lottery. I think Nick Perry picked mine, it was #118. I was almost off to Vietnam to join my older brother already there. Luckily the war was winding down and the draft was being abolished. It was like Give Me Three Steps Mister and I’ll be out the door…

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Ike: I was in the last draft they held and when i got home from college that day I asked my mom, God rest her soul, if she heard where i was picked. Answer: I don’t remember exactly, but the first number was somebody famous birthday, Me: No mom mine, I am in the draft Mom: I think it was in the hundreds (it was). Thanks to all the vets for their sacrifice. what struck me odd was that I signed up for Selective Service and would have gone if drafted but years later kids protested signing up for a draft that didn’t exist. Huh? 🙂
        HAIL TO PITT

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  9. Curtis is way too hard on himself for thinking he cheated Pitt.

    The university cheated the players (and fans) far, far worse. Football was left to rot and there was no vision, no leadership. Martin’s freshman season there was talent, but zero depth on the team. Depth was erased by insane academic standards for football players that did more damage to the program than helping it.

    I was impressed Curtis visited Miami and garnered that kind of attention from his lone season of high school football. He also mentioned the injuries were due to a lack of conditioning. If anyone else recalls, Hackett blew Buddy Morris out when he took over and hired a coupe of bozo S&C coaches whose backgrounds were in baseball and basketball, respectively. Also, it wasn’t mandatory for players to stay and work out in the summertime and Pitt lost that structure it had under Morris.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. couldn’t agree more. When I first heard his reasoning I immediately thought, and still do, that he was bending WAY over backwards to absolve everyone but himself for his stay at Pitt, and his decision not to stay another year.

      I’m certainly not attacking his character and integrity, in fact, what he is saying now is really admirable. But still, I’m not buying into some of it, maybe even much of it.

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    2. Exactly. The university cheated all of us. Those leaders can all rot in hell. If I go to Hell, I’ll bargain with the devil to pour gasoline over their tortured souls. They cheated me out of a decade while in my prime. F em all.

      Tex

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  10. Haven’t listened to the podcast yet, but Curtis Martin was the keynote speaker at last season’s kickoff luncheon. He is total class.

    Highlight of his talk was when he talked about and introduced his Mom in the audience.

    Curtis showed the letter he wrote to Johnny Majors where he thanked Johnny for (inadvertently) pushing Curtis to get the most out of his ability. When Curtis was considering leaving with a year of eligibility remaining, Johnny told Curtis that there’s no way he could make it in the NFL — Curtis thought, I’ll show you coach… And he did.

    You knew Curtis was good when he could make long runs for a Pitt team that wasn’t so good… He gained something like 250 yards against Texas, the most yards anyone had gained in a game against Texas in their history…

    Go Pitt.

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  11. I attended a PSU game but had to sit in the lower seats at Pitt stadium because I waited too long to get tickets. We were a few rows up right behind the PSU bench.

    On one play Curtis took a wide pitch and ran right up toward us. He struggled to gain more ground but was stopped. The PSU players held him up for must have been 15 to 20 seconds. The refs seemed to be asleep. Finally the ball came out for a fumble. I never saw a player as furious as Curtis. Our group was livid. Typical PSU game refs.

    I was sad to see him leave Pitt early but how can you prevent someone from making a living.

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  12. OT, Morrissey and Hargrove are coming on strong after last season. Kradel should improve in his second year of increased play. Not convinced Warren is the answer at LT. Is Huoy good enough to be the starter at RT? Overall the OL should be better than last years.

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  13. You heard Martin mention a certain coach that led him to leave for the NFL. From a reliable source at that time it was Majors who actually nudged him out. If you put all the pieces together it actually makes sense. Martin wasn’t the hardest worker and there was much conflict between the two.

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    1. your really reaching here. By saying Majors ‘inadvertently’ pushed him to the NFL was not exactly a compliment IMO. In fact, I will go as far that by saying this, Martin inadvertently ‘damned him with faint praise’ …. although I’m sure that wasn’t his intention

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      2. No Bill, no reaching here. The word in the day was Majors encouraged Martin to leave. In the podcast it was nice to see Curtis took the high road.

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    2. Billy West gaining 1,358 yards in 10 games during the 1994 season was probably another reason Majors nudged Curtis out. Billy was a hard worker and nobody knew Martin was going to have the NFL career that he did.

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    3. Nobody worked for Majors II – the last game blow out was the worst I have ever seen a team quit out of the gate. Shameful. Major’s biggest mistake was coming back without cash on the table. That southern bozo AD really conned him about Pitt’s committment.
      I am speculating on Spindler but 1) in limited dealings as an attorney he is a bit of a prick 2) Huff’s beloved Heather 🙂 may be concerned that he is too much agent directed in his motives, gotta run a clean program. Again it is speculative on very limited knowledge of limited personal contact.
      HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY

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      1. Spindler and grossman were pricks on par with Sean miller. I know. I was there.

        Mathews and Richards were how student athletes should be.

        Tex

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  14. Don’t want to besmirch Warren but he makes me think of a player that didn’t need to sit at home eating cheeseburgers and mom’s apple pie. Having said that, I like his potential and now with a year of starting under his belt he could be better than fine. As long as he’s staid in shape.

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  15. I don’t think I spelled staid right? (stayed) and we don’t know what kind of shape these players will be in when it comes time to report

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    1. fwiw, Richard Manuel is pictured above, not Garth Hudson. Ike inadvertently credited the wrong guy

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      1. Yes wwb great pickup, I saw that right off the bat. Thanks……. Who are the only two surviving original members?

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    1. Robbie and Hudson.

      Biggie I can picture you dancing at the high school bop to this song…. crazy legs Bernie……..

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  19. I have heard Curtis speak over the years. He always professed to be neutral at best about the game of football. His growth as a person and sense of perspective reflecs a man with humility and a strong value system, obviously inculcated by his mother whom he speaks of so lovingly. And maybe also the death of his friend and insights into his early life circumstances.
    The fact that fame, even the Hall of Fame, has not made him feel better than anyone else except for objectively what he accomplished is a testament to a level of integrity rarely seen in pro sports. (Michael Jordan comes to mind)
    His accomplishment with his foundation without fanfare is further evidence of the man he has grown to become. Pitt’s recognition is rightly a reflection of that and a desire to take some responsibility for who he became.

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  20. Garth and Robbie are still living I believe. In fact, just saw an extensive interview with Robbie last week on AllAxis (or whatever) — pre-Covid. He’s about to release a new album and still does soundtracks for Scorcese

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  22. in a Wall St Journal interview, the U of Mich Prez states that there will be no FB if students are not on campus, and there is a ‘degree of doubt’ if there will be any collegiate fall sports this year

    Just one opinion, I guess, and I sure hope he’s being too pessimistic …. but I still have no idea what to expect

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    1. I don’t think the “no-football unless students are on campus” argument will fly at all. Anywhere.

      However, I suspect this will be a crazy, disjointed season with some games perhaps being forfeited when a certain number of positive cases occur among the players and coaches…

      Go Pitt.

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    2. I think the degree of doubt is only 5 percent. There’s a 95 percent chance football will be played and students will be back. But it will be a new normal. And that’s fine by me if it helps save lives and kids can get an education and fans can be entertained. Success is dependent on us taking it seriously and following some basic health protocols.

      Tex

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  23. The opinion is the south is opposite. Again, things are about 75-m% normal. Eateries are open and most all stores and busy. Be smart and all is fine. Here for every 50 people 20 have masks on if that.

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    1. Able to eat in a restaurant last night down here on the OBX…. give it a month and the people will hit the reset button….

      Ready for some Annie blueberry pie and Lisa’s pepperoni rolls at the tailgate…Mark, a piece of that torte Would be awesome too!!!

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    2. I still have to wait until Monday for a tattoo. But things are pretty much 75 percent back. 100 percent when school resumes come August.

      Tex

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  24. Let’s just hope we don’t reset back into pandemic. Remember football will be played during flu season and the covid will be back. I can also see outbreaks and teams forfeiting games. I just hope Bates who had cancer is extra cautious and his players are responsible.

    Football will be played and some students will be allowed back on campus. I trust Pitt to come up with the right plan and proper contingencies. Pitt is very well into the details and scenario planning at this point.

    Tex

    Enjoy OBX. One of my fav vacation spots…Corolla.

    Heather also has been known to frequent the strand there.

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  25. —Would like to see Warren lose some weight and see if it helps his agility. But I still remember Coach Borbs saying a while back that Warren was our most athletic OLineman — unless I’m “mis-remembering”…

    —Curtis Martin is the style of runner we need but have gotten away from. We went from backs of that type —Shady, Dion, and Ray — to the bigger, straight-line guys. Give me a back who can juke-out the first would-be tackler…

    Go Pitt.

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    1. I miss the Ironhead days.

      His son is a future HOF’er based on leadership and character alone.

      You know you’ve done well when your son turns out like that.

      Tex

      Liked by 2 people

  27. OBX is in my blood…been going there since 1972…and Corolla since they built Corolla Light.
    Plus I meet BigB and Bad Bernie down there now!

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  29. Hugh……… my favorite PITT player of all-time. TD and AD right behind. Decades between. I can roll with the changes

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