The Super Bowl story began when Manny Martin walked through the Deerfield Beach High gym each day on his way to the cafeteria. He saw this tall, skinny, athletic 10th-grader playing basketball and did what football coaches do. He introduced himself. The kid’s fingers went to Martin’s wrists.
The next fall, the kid showed up in Martin’s geometry class. He was a junior now.
“Mr. Jason Pierre-Paul, the basketball player?” Martin said. “You know geometry is a core class. You need to pass this class. I need you out on the football field.”
And Martin says now, chuckling, “He said the same thing, ‘I’m a basketball player.