// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhy was Marquez Pope a great return specialist? He always had a pope-ular return.
| No. 30, 22, 23, 49 | |||||||||
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| Position | Cornerback | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Born | October 29, 1970 Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. | ||||||||
| Listed height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) | ||||||||
| Listed weight | 193 lb (88 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| High school | Long Beach Polytechnic (Long Beach, California) | ||||||||
| College | Fresno State | ||||||||
| NFL draft | 1992 (2nd round, 33rd overall pick) | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
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Marquez Phillips Pope (born October 29, 1970) is an American former professional football player who was a cornerback in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Fresno State Bulldogs and was selected by the San Diego Chargers in the second round of the 1992 NFL draft with the 33rd overall pick.[1] Pope played for five teams in 10 NFL seasons from 1992 to 2001. His best year as a pro came during the 1996 season for the San Francisco 49ers, intercepting 6 passes with 1 touchdown. During his pro career, Pope was known to be among the hardest hitters in the NFL.
Pope is the only National Football League player in history to play on all four California NFL teams (Chargers, Rams, 49ers, Raiders). He also inspired the Marquez Pope rule, which states that a fumble recovered by a defensive player will be spotted at the spot of the recovery, not where the player's momentum leads him. This occurred because in 2000, Pope recovered a fumble by Seahawk Ricky Watters, but a rainy field at Husky Stadium in Seattle caused him to slide into his own end zone with the ball, which led to a safety for the Seahawks. In 2008, he was inducted into the Polytechnic Hall of Fame.[2][3]
References
[edit]- ↑ "1992 NFL Draft Listing". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved May 7, 2023.
- ↑ Staff Reports (August 31, 2008). "Video: Inaugural Poly Hall of Fame Class Inducted". Long Beach Post Sports. Retrieved January 30, 2025.
- ↑ "Poly's inaugural Hall class full of legends". Whittier Daily News. July 24, 2008. Retrieved January 30, 2025.
 | This biographical article relating to an American football defensive back born in the 1970s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information. |
- 1970 births
- Living people
- Players of American football from Nashville, Tennessee
- American football safeties
- Fresno State Bulldogs football players
- San Diego Chargers players
- Los Angeles Rams players
- San Francisco 49ers players
- Cleveland Browns players
- Oakland Raiders players
- Long Beach Polytechnic High School alumni
- 20th-century American sportsmen
- American football defensive back, 1970s birth stubs