Punter is usually a low-profile position, but Marquette King turned it into something bigger. Back when he played for the Oakland Raiders, his cousin Greg Rhymes would stand on the sidelines snapping photos with fans wearing King’s No. 7 jersey, and every week, there were more of them. That was the impact he brought to the Raiders. He saw himself as “an athlete who punts,” not just “a punter,” and his larger-than-life style backed that up.

He led the league in punt average and punt yards in seasons (2013 and 2014), and in 2016 was a second-team All-Pro. And it wasn’t just the booming kicks. In fact, his celebrations, personality, and social-media presence all fed into it. But fast-forward to today, and despite being one of the best punters of his era, King has been out of the NFL for years. And in his eyes, the reason is simple: he believes he’s been blackballed.

“I’m definitely blackballed,” he said, per The Athletic. “I’m definitely better than over half the punters still playing. That’s just what it is.”

And you can tell the reason why he thinks so. King signed a five-year, $16.5 million deal with the Raiders in 2016 under Jack Del Rio’s head coaching. The signs were clear: Marquette King was going to etch his name in the Raiders’ history. But everything went south after Del Rio was fired following the 2017 season. The Raiders then hired Jon Gruden as the next head coach. But that change in the coaching was far bigger for the punter.

Not long after Gruden was hired, King went on NFL Network in full costume. We’re talking about the crown, robe, and scepter. There, he jokingly called Gruden “the guy from Monday Night Football.” Fast forward to the 2018 scouting combine, Gruden publicly criticized King’s work as a holder on field goals, which only added to the tension.

King eventually got word that Gruden wasn’t exactly a fan, so he tried to smooth things over. He showed up with Snickers for Gruden and bottles of limoncello for the new special teams coordinator, Rich Bisaccia. But before any of that could make a difference, he was cut the same day he walked into the building with those gifts.

The veteran remained upset that no one, not even Gruden, ever told him why he was being cut. He admitted his NFL Network appearance was a bit over the top, but he says if Gruden had just told him to calm down and focus on punting, he would’ve done it. He would’ve kept quiet, done his job, and taken his paycheck.

“All they had to do was just tell me,” he said. “But some people aren’t secure or confident enough to be able to do that.”

Which now raises a question: Why is King blackballed? For starters, King had a few personal-conduct fines (unsportsmanlike acts) that coaches didn’t like. He was fined three times for unsportsmanlike conduct: once for a horse-collar tackle, another time for using a penalty flag as a prop, and again for throwing the ball at an opponent.

Besides, he feels that he was unfairly shut out of NFL opportunities because of how he expressed himself. And let’s just say that after the Raiders cut ties with him, things took a brutal turn for him. From there, he signed with the Denver Broncos, but things never clicked for him as he was released the same season following an injury. He later had tryouts with other teams but never stuck.

Fast forward to now, and he’s been away from the NFL since 2018. And even after so many years, he neither managed to get another shot in the NFL nor the support.

The fans expressed their thoughts on Marquette King’s claim

Following Marquette King’s claim, some supporters didn’t buy his “blackballed” explanation and felt the situation was simpler: teams just didn’t want the extra headaches. One pointed out that “Every position it’s important, but punters aren’t nearly enough in demand to deal with somebody who is uncoachable.” Others pointed to trust issues, saying moments like this were deal-breakers. “Brother, he called his own fake punt. He literally had one job and could not do it with the trust of the coaching staff.”

For others, it wasn’t the personality; it was the penalties. They felt a punter hurting field position was unforgivable in a role built on precision. As one fan chimed in: “Doesn’t matter if you’re a pretty good punter if you’re regularly getting 15 yard penalties for dumb shit.” For a few people, the celebrations weren’t the issue. It was the fines and flags that came with the team.

Another fan pushed it further, framing it as an attitude problem more than anything else. “The guy was a headcase. Talented punter but had too much ego and didn’t want to follow coaching,” they wrote. This is where fan perception really diverges from King’s own narrative.

And a few fans believed the issue was simply King stepping outside the structure of the position, something coaches almost never tolerate, noting, “A punter who calls his own audibles never going to last, no matter the talent level.” Put together, the reactions show a clear theme: fans don’t doubt King’s talent, but they overwhelmingly believe the personality-to-position ratio was too much for teams. And that’s why he never got another shot.