Marquise Hill (August 7, 1982 – May 28, 2007) was an

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 ...

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formations over the years have substantially changed how the position is p ...

for the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

of 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 majo ...

(NFL). He was drafted by the Patriots in the second round of the

2004 NFL Draft The 2004 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 24–25, 2004 at the Theater at ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

at LSU.

High school career

Hill attended De La Salle High School in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

, where he was named as an All-American and the best

defensive lineman In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numb ...

in the nation by many publications. He was recruited by LSU. He participated in the first-ever U.S. Army All-American Bowl game on December 30, 2000.

College career

Hill played

as a

for the

LSU Tigers The LSU Tigers and Lady Tigers are the athletic teams representing Louisiana State University (LSU), a state university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. LSU competes in NCAA Division I, Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Associat ...

from 2001-2003 during their national championship season.

Professional career

Hill was drafted by the Patriots in the second round with the 63rd overall pick in the

. He played in one game in 2004 and played in eight games in the 2005 season, making three tackles.

Death

On the evening of May 27, 2007, Hill and his friend, Ashley Blazio, fell off a

jet ski Jet Ski is the brand name of a personal watercraft (PWC) manufactured by Kawasaki, a Japanese company. The term is often used generically to refer to any type of personal watercraft used mainly for recreation, and it is also used as a verb to ...

Lake Pontchartrain Lake Pontchartrain ( ) is an estuary located in southeastern Louisiana in the United States. It covers an area of with an average depth of . Some shipping channels are kept deeper through dredging. It is roughly oval in shape, about from w ...

, north of

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

. Neither of them wore personal flotation or

tracking device A tracking system, also known as a locating system, is used for the observing of persons or objects on the move and supplying a timely ordered sequence of location data for further processing. It is important to be aware of human tracking, fu ...

s. According to Hill's agent, who spoke with Blazio, Hill "ended up saving her life, keeping her calm until she could grab onto a buoy." Blazio was rescued and sent to Tulane Medical Center.

Coast Guard A coast guard or coastguard is a maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to ...

units searched the area. Hill's body was found by the

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is bord ...

Department of Wildlife and Fisheries around 2:20 PM CDT on May 28. Throughout their near-perfect

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple Inc., Apple's first iPhone (1st generation), iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakis ...

season, the Patriots team wore a "91" insignia (Hill's number in his tenure with New England) on the back of their helmets in his honor. Teammate

Jarvis Green Jarvis Pernell Green (born January 12, 1979) is a former American football defensive end who played in the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the New England Patriots in the fourth round of the 2002 NFL draft. He played college f ...

, who had also been Hill's teammate at LSU, wore Hill's shoulder pads for the season. The Patriots built a tribute to Hill, including those pads and pictures of Hill, at their facility.

References

External links

New England Patriots bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, Marquise 1982 births 2007 deaths Players of American football from New Orleans American football defensive ends De La Salle High School (New Orleans, Louisiana) alumni New England Patriots players LSU Tigers football players Deaths by drowning in the United States Accidental deaths in Louisiana Burials in Louisiana 20th-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American sportspeople