Former NFL punter Marquette King believes things went downhill for him once Jon Gruden was re-hired as the Raiders’ head coach in January 2018.
During an appearance this week on 95.7 The Game, King claimed he was told Gruden, who previously coached the Raiders from 1998 to 2001, wanted him off the roster — despite never meeting the coach.
“As soon as I showed up, [then-Raiders general manager] Reggie [McKenzie] was telling me that Gruden doesn’t want me there,” King said. “We’re about to let you go, we’re gonna put you on the wire, and it’s gonna hit the news soon.”
Three months after Gruden’s return was announced, King was released from the team in March 2018.
King recalled thinking that he was in good standing with the team leading up to his release, which he felt was personal. A report at the time alleged that it was a “Gruden-led decision” to cut King, who signed with the Raiders after going undrafted in 2012.
“Raiders felt like home. That was home. Staying in the bay was home. Wearing those colors, I couldn’t see myself wearing any other colors,” King said.
“I honestly should’ve took a year off. I was just so scarred from that, man. Feeling like somebody just has a motive behind just letting you go. I honestly don’t understand. I think it was hate. That’s what I feel like. That’s the only way you can be like that towards somebody if you never met them. I don’t know, some people just got hate in their heart.”
Prior to his release, King produced a career-best 42.7-yard net average — and had three years remaining on his contract. Reports claimed at the time that Gruden and King’s personalities didn’t mesh.
A month after his release from the Raiders, King signed a three-year, $7 million deal with the Broncos in April 2018. He was placed on injured reserve in October of that year with a thigh injury. King was released from the team that same month and reached an injury settlement with the team.
King then took his talents to the XFL, and was selected in November 2019 by the St. Louis Battlehawks in the 2020 XFL Supplemental Draft. His contract was terminated when the league suspended operations in April 2020.
In a series of tweets last month, King said he hasn’t received a “fair opportunity” to return to the NFL.
“Not calling it a career just settling with the fact that I haven’t been able to get another fair opportunity,” King wrote on Twitter at the time.
In a separate tweet, King wrote, “I haven’t officially retired I’m just not fighting to get in a league that ignores the resume I’ve created that’s better that over half of the punters in the NFL.”
Gruden, meanwhile, resigned from the Raiders last October after an explosive New York Times report revealed he had used homophobic and misogynistic language in emails over a seven-year period ending in 2018.
