Ali Marpet – Congratulations, You Badass

Congrats to Super Bowl Champion and Pro-Bowler Ali Marpet on a great NFL career. Guy earned nearly $40 million and won a Super Bowl with Tom Brady as his Quarterback, all in just seven seasons seasons. Not too bad considering it probably felt like 20 in offensive lineman years.

Ali Marpet was a guard at Division III Hobart College, he became a star at the Senior Bowl in 2015 after playing mainly Left Tackle in college. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers picked him in the second round, he didn’t allow a single sack against in his senior season at Hobart and he dominated the Senior Bowl. He went on to become one of the best guards in football and will go down as one of the greatest ever from a D3 school.

Marpet was good enough to become the 7th highest paid offensive linemen in football, although he did face a 2021 season riddled with nagging injuries that probably effected his decision to retire. At 28 years old he can still live his life without having to prove anything more on the football field, while sitting on a fat pile of cash for the rest of his life.

On another note, the rumors of the Bucs program and culture not being the best environment grows and moves the needle just a little. I guess Brady retiring allows everyone else to kind of reset and evaluate their options in terms of prioritizing their own health. Not only your body but your brain. I’m sure NFL players at least nervously joke about CTE, not knowing if such a horrible disease might directly or indirectly effect their futures. I can also guess Marpet heavily weighed whether $20+ million was worth his long term mental and physical health. An overall growing trend in the NFL. 

Another big congrats to another big man with an all time underdog story, getting it done quickly and bigly.

Cheers.