The Steelers may have fallen short in the playoffs, but Western Pennsylvania will be all over Super Bowl LV.
James Martin, a 39-year-old Beaver County resident and Marine Corps veteran, will be one of three honorary captains on Sunday and will participate in the opening coin toss ceremony on national TV for the contest between the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
In Tampa, Fla., he will join former Steelers offensive coordinator Bruce Arians, now Tampa Bay’s head coach; Central Valley grad Jordan Whitehead, who plays safety for the Buccaneers; and Chiefs offensive lineman Stefen Wisniewski and Tampa Bay receiver Justin Watson, who grew up on the same street in South Fayette.
“I’m just deeply grateful, extremely humbled,” Staff Sgt. Martin told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Monday. “As a fan … this was a lifelong dream. The fact that they chose me — and I don’t feel like I deserve it — I’m just extremely grateful for the opportunity.”
The Center resident and Beaver Falls native learned of the honor during a routine Zoom call with a veterans group he works with when, out of the blue, legendary Steelers running back Jerome Bettis popped onto his screen to tell him the good news.
“For somebody like that to say I’ve done good, that meant a lot,” he said. “It was a very humbling experience.”
He spent 15 years in the Marines, including two deployments in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, before being medically discharged in 2015 after an injury left him paralyzed from the chest down. After years of rehab, he regained mobility and just deals “with the pain as it comes,” he said.
Since returning home, Sgt. Martin has worked closely with the Wounded Warrior Project, helping veterans to socialize with each other via online video games. He also has helped set up livestreams of Aliquippa High School football and basketball games so fans not allowed to attend during the COVID-19 pandemic can watch the games.
On Sunday, he will join Suzie Dorner, a nurse manager at a Tampa Bay hospital, and Trimaine Davis, an educator in Los Angeles, on the NFL’s biggest stage. The three honorary captains will also be serenaded with a poem in their honor by Amanda Gorman, who recently read her poetry during President Joe Biden’s inauguration.
The lifelong NFL and Steelers fan is looking forward to the unexpected trip with his wife, Renee, an Aliquippa schoolteacher, who will be his plus-one in Florida.
“It’s as much paying her back as it is doing the good husband deed of taking your wife to the Super Bowl,” he said with a chuckle.
They have eight children, three of whom still live at home. He was working on earning a degree in media arts with a concentration in photography from Robert Morris University before the pandemic forced him to put those ambitions on hold.
Sgt. Martin is expecting one heck of a contest between the Chiefs and the Buccaneers, and as much as he is rooting for Mr. Whitehead, a fellow Beaver County native, his heart is with the Chiefs.
“[The Bucs] have a lot of momentum in their corner and true home-field advantage,” he said. “They have some of the best backs in the league. The skill players are amazing and the defense is in the power. But the Chiefs are just as dangerous on both sides of the ball. I’m just really hoping for a good game.”
He has plenty of folks in his inner circle to thank for being physically able to attend the game, including his wife, his kids, his mother and brothers Gabe and Myron. They have always stuck by him, he said, and he credits them for keeping him grounded during rough days. He said it never occurred to him that his work with veterans would lead to such an opportunity.
“My intentions were purely to help out veterans, my brothers and sisters. … It was just to be of service to do something good. If it had happened COVID or non-COVID, the sheer fact everyone knows about this, it’s humbling, and I’m honored it’s happening nonetheless.”
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