Long profile story on former Pitt RB, Curtis Martin of the NY Jets, as most of Western Pennsylvania focuses on the Jets-Steelers game. Seems Martin was never really much of a football guy:

“My mom didn’t want me out on the streets,” Martin recalled. “Too many of us were getting killed. I feel like I could have been dead so many times. I feel so blessed and grateful that [bad] things never panned out for me.”

Hackett and assistant Sal Sunseri wooed Martin, sold his mother on a Pitt education, landed the prize recruit. “I listened to them and the whole time I’m thinking in my mind, ‘They don’t know, I don’t even care.’ I was horrible in college. I didn’t want to play. I just didn’t want to look stupid [frittering away] the scholarship.”

Seems like a deep one-on-one sitdown with a reporter. That is until you see the same quotes and same type of story in the Asbury Park Press and NorthJersey.com. Not to mention the NY Times. Basically he told this story during media sit-down.

As an additional aside, an interesting and sad story (picked up by the sports wires) on the murder of Paul Hackett’s father nearly 40 years ago.