Danyel Cecil Martin (born July 8, 1975) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

fullback in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL).

Early life

Martin was born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

on July 8, 1975. He attended

Evanston Township High School Evanston Township High School (ETHS) District 202, is a four-year public high school occupying a campus in Evanston, Illinois, a north suburb of Chicago along the Lake Michigan shore. ETHS was established in 1883 and serves the city of Evanston ...

in Illinois before going on to play college football at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

for the

Wisconsin Badgers The Wisconsin Badgers are the athletic teams representing the University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin). They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level ( Football Bowl Subdivis ...

between 1995 and 1999, appearing in the

1996 Copper Bowl The 1996 Copper Bowl was the 8th edition of the bowl game. It was between the Wisconsin Badgers and the Utah Utes. Game summary Wisconsin scored first on a 38-yard touchdown run from Mike Samuel to open a 7–0 lead. Utah's Daniel Pulsipher answe ...

1998 Outback Bowl The 1998 Outback Bowl featured the Georgia Bulldogs and the Wisconsin Badgers. It was the 12th edition of the Outback Bowl Georgia scored first on a 2-yard touchdown run from running back Robert Edwards, giving Georgia an early 6–0 lead. Edwa ...

and

1999 Rose Bowl The 1999 Rose Bowl was the 85th Rose Bowl game and was played on Friday January 1, 1999, at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California. It was a college football bowl game at the end of the 1998 NCAA Division I-A football season. Wisconsin def ...

, winning in 1996 and 1999. Martin is also a brother of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity.

NFL career

He was drafted in the sixth round of the 1999 NFL Draft by the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team play ...

. Martin soon became a starter for the Eagles. Martin's two career touchdowns came in the same game, twice receiving from Donovan McNabb in a 17-20 loss against the

St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis from 1995 to the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, where the team had played from 1946 to 1994. The arr ...

during the 2001 season. Cecil left the Eagles at the end of the 2002 season. Martin was an ever-present in the Eagles

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

, 2001 and 2002 campaigns, all three ending in the team qualifying for the

playoffs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eit ...

. In the 2003 off season, Martin signed on the practice team for the Oakland Raiders. He was later cut and picked up by the

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The cl ...

, for whom he appeared in one game in 2003, a 13-33 loss to the

Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division, and play their hom ...

in week 16. Martin retired from professional football having played 61 regular season and 7 post season games across his 5 seasons in the game.

Retirement

Currently, Martin works with high school student-athletes across the country educating them on the college recruiting process as an Educational Speaker for the National Collegiate Scouting Association. Martin also often appears on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

in the United Kingdom as a studio analyst for their NFL programming. Throughout 2013 and 2014, Martin toured the United Kingdom's

teams to help promote and grow the sport in the country. Martin suffers from Bell's Palsy, which affects the left side of his face.

References

External links

CBS Sportsline player profileCecil Martin on Twitter
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Cecil 1975 births Living people African-American players of American football American football fullbacks American expatriates in the United Kingdom Evanston Township High School alumni National Football League announcers Philadelphia Eagles players Players of American football from Chicago Tampa Bay Buccaneers players Wisconsin Badgers football players 21st-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American sportspeople