TXHSFB in the Super Bowl: Marcus Cannon

Feb 12, 2019

Made Sports

Friday night lights is often generally applied to all Texas high school football.

Yet one player playing in Super Bowl LIII is from the actual city that serves as the setting for the story about the Permian Panthers. Marcus Cannon may have been an Odessa Broncho, but he still got to play at the legendary Ratliff Stadium.

Cannon went to play college football at Texas Christian University, where he played tackle and protected Andy Dalton. Large by even football standards, Cannon anchored a line that gave up less that one sack a game his senior year.

Projected as a 1st-round draft pick, he went in the fifth round because during the pre-draft process he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Cannon started his rookie season on the Non-Football Injury list as he recovered from his chemotherapy but has not been in remission for almost eight years. However, he has seen occasional time on the “football injury” injured list.

Still, Cannon quickly became one of the best tackles in the NFL and played well enough to earn a 5-year contract including a $7 million signing bonus. Soon after that, he helped the Patriots team that won Super Bowl LI. In the game, the Patriots defeated the Atlanta Falcons in overtime and Cannon had the key block.

On 2nd-and-goal, the Patriots tossed to James White to the right and had Cannon pull around under two down blocks from receivers. Cannon got the linebacker to ground and the safety in pursuit wasn’t able to stop White from getting to the endzone.

That secured Cannon’s second ring, as he was also a member of the Patriots team that stunned the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX.

As he pursues his third world championship in his fifth trip, the Odessa High Bronchos made sure to congratulate Marcus on their twitter.

While west Texas may always be in his blood, Cannon will have the chance to shine once again under the Sunday night lights.