From dog slippers to blitzes, eclectic personality of Oklahoma State LB Nick Martin shines
Scott WrightThe Oklahoman
STILLWATER — Nick Martin’s deep voice is a little raspy, but always soft.
His sense of humor can be dry. His facial expressions, almost static.
His play on the football field is full-speed violence.
Yet all that publicly viewable information hardly encapsulates the personality of the Oklahoma State linebacker.
“Nick is the most serious goofy guy,” said teammate Ollie Gordon II, admitting the contradiction in his words.
But that’s what makes Martin so unique. He can read a situation, and adapt to whatever it calls for, spanning from the most serious to the most goofy.
The 18th-ranked Cowboys open the season against FCS No. 1 South Dakota State at 1 p.m. Saturday at Boone Pickens Stadium, and Martin is no jokester when it comes to football.
He went from new starter to All-Big 12 selection last season, finishing with 140 tackles — the most by a Cowboy in roughly 40 years. The redshirt junior has begun to gain NFL attention because of his speed and tackling ability.
Then there’s the side of Martin that showed up to Big 12 Media Days in Las Vegas last month wearing a black OSU polo shirt, jeans and big, fuzzy slippers with wolf heads on them.
A couple weeks later, he walked into OSU’s local media day wearing similar slippers with puppies on them.
“You see the shoes, man, I look at ‘em and that’s Nick in a nutshell,” OSU linebacker Collin Oliver said. “He’s an amazing dude, a great character. It’s cool that people see more than just football. That’s Nick. That’s the way he is 100% of the time.”
The best description of Martin’s personality would be eclectic. He loves his animal slippers — says he owns at least 10 pairs. For the last two years, he has been teaching himself to play the guitar. And he’s just as comfortable standing in front of the media discussing his Christian faith, his passion for jewelry or the intricacies of a delayed blitz.
“I’m pretty weird,” Martin said. “I’d say it comes from my influences, what I like. If I like it, I do it.”
That’s why no one in his family was surprised to see Martin show up to Vegas with his wolf slippers.
“It was funny to me, because everybody saw it and was like, ‘Man, Nick really wore those?’” said Chauncey Martin, one of Nick’s three older brothers. “I wasn’t even surprised. He’s hilarious. I love him.”
While Nick shares a lot of similarities with his brothers, Brandon, Ryan and Chauncey, even within the family, Nick has some personality quirks that are his alone.
“We all like music, but Nick has some different tastes,” Chauncey said. “Nick has always been a little different from me and our older brothers. He always did his own thing growing up.
“When it’s time to be lock in, he’ll lock in. But when it’s not serious, you can be yourself around him. You don’t have to act a certain way. That’s how our mom raised us, to love everybody and enjoy every moment of your life.”
When Nick makes his way back to his East Texas hometown of Texarkana, his mother, Tosha Martin, can feel his presence in the house.
“All four boys have great personalities and are friendly, loving young men,” Tosha said. “Nickolas is very playful and he loves to mess with me when he’s home. I’ll be in the kitchen and he’ll come up behind me and thump me on the shoulder or wrap me up and lift me in the air, little things like that. And I miss those things every time he leaves.”
As the youngest of the four boys, and with the influences from Tosha and his father, Michael, Nick saw the world around him through each of them, and that shaped his well-rounded personality.
While his music taste or his clothing style might have a unique flair, his faith and his upbringing have kept him centered in the person he wants to be.
“I always tried to make sure my boys understand who they are, make sure they put God first in their lives, make sure they understand there’s a purpose and a plan for everything,” Tosha said. “You live every day to be the man you want to become. That’s something I instilled in them early on, so it just manifested.
“Nick has always known who he is.”
Ask five people in Nick’s life which of his personality traits stands out the most and you might get five different answers, because he’s such a multi-faceted individual.
