The Denver Broncos’ preseason opener is still five days away and former Raiders punter Marquette King is already spreading his special brand of wacky, insouciant, egocentric feel-good in the Mile High City.
King spent five seasons in Oakland, averaging 46.8 yards per punt. In one of his first acts upon returning to the Raiders, coach Jon Gruden waived him without comment.
King signed with the Broncos, and has likely been dreaming about the prospect of kicking eight games per season in thin air. But over the weekend something else was in the air.
Asked for an interview by Denver radio sports hosts at the Broncos’ training camp, King went all passive-aggressive, according to brobible.com.
The hosts asked King to summarize his first two weeks of camp.
“I don’t know how to summarize it. Good? Like a regular practice day.”
They asked him what it’s been like moving from one team to another.
“I don’t know,” King said. “It’s cool. Got some cool people on the team.”
And the coaches?
“Yup. Everything’s good.”
This from a guy who has no trouble expressing himself on social media. I’s not just a Raiders (or ex-Raiders) thing. But it brings back memories of JaMarcus Russell who once, during his scheduled weekly meeting with reporters, gave them two highly unenthusiastic answers (about on the order of King’s) then said, “That It?” and ran past the Raiders employee charged with making sure he met with the media and told the guy: “You owe me.”
Back to Denver. After six questions, the two radio hosts were doing the buck and wing with no music. In desperation, one asked if King was looking forward to the exhibition season.
King: “I mean, it’s definitely coming. So… ” Whereupon the hosts cut their losses.
After the”interview” King trolled them with a suggestive tweet.
— Marquette King (@MarquetteKing) August 4, 2018
The next day, King sought out one of the Denver hosts and threatened him. King had to be restrained by Broncos public relations employees who probably wished they’d taken their father’s advice to become a shepherd. So to summarize:
This Marquette King situation is escalating. 48 hrs in review
Friday: King sabotages interview w/ Stoke & I so we shut it down after a min & 30 seconds
Saturday: King on Twitter tells Dmac to suck u know what
Sunday: King finds Dmac & threatens him.
Great start as a Bronco! https://t.co/zUdPPoUSZf
— Zach Bye (@byesline) August 5, 2018
This doesn’t figure to be the last time King is going to be asked to grant an interview. If that’s the best he can do, the suggestion from here would be:
Punt.