Sacramento State football star drawing on inspiration from NFL legend to help other players
SACRAMENTO - A Sacramento State football star is using an NFL hall-of-famer for inspiration in a new way.
Ahead of Sacramento State's playoff game on Saturday, one star defender is getting every teammate game ready. CBS13 learned how advice from an NFL legend is still helping others more than a decade later.
Sacramento State's Marte Mapu is a teacher. After all, there's a standard to uphold.
"At least for this year, it doesn't feel like to me satisfaction because we want to win in January," said Marte Mapu.
It's a mindset he learned from his father and grandfather -- especially his grandfather, who came from humble beginnings.
"They're just real quiet, humble, work hard do a lot of stuff for our family," Marte said. "He worked in the shipyard and from there it's always been hard work," said Av'e Mapu, Marte's father.
As a boy, Marte entered Pop Warner football.
But it was a talk with an NFL legend Junior Seau at 10 years old that helped shape him as a player.
"I always remember when he asked the question and he goes to him 'what can I do to get better?'," said Av'e. "Junior just told him, 'hey, I know you're too young right now to know but for me, it's film study.'"
Which is on display to his Sacramento State coaches now.
"He spends a lot of time watching tape. And also my office is on the outside of the facility -- you can see the track and the football field and the guy is every day I'm in there in the summer he's out there catching balls," said the team's head coach Troy Taylor.
So much so that there's interest from NFL scouts. But that's not Marte's thing. He's still teaching.
"I haven't done any more digging to try and get any more insight because I'm trying to win a national championship first," said Marte.
It's that grounding and insight, borne of generations of Mapu men, that makes his father most proud.
"I noticed it in high school [that] it seemed like he always had a plan. He knew what he wanted to do and he went out there and got it," said Av'e.
As Marte gets his teammates ready to do something they haven't done yet: that one box still to check is a postseason win.
The Hornets haven't won in the playoffs yet under Taylor and hope to break that skid against Richmond tomorrow.