Marcus Monk (born April 26, 1986) is an American former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

wide receiver A wide receiver (WR), also referred to as a wideout, and historically known as a split end (SE) or flanker (FL), is an eligible receiver in gridiron football. A key skill position of the offense (American football), offense, WR gets its name ...

and a former professional

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player. He was selected by the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They are one of two remaining ...

in the seventh round of the

2008 NFL draft The 2008 NFL draft was the 73rd NFL draft, annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible American football players. The draft took place at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, New York (state), New York ...

. He played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

. Monk was also a member of the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...

and

Carolina Panthers The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. The t ...

. Between 2010 and 2012, he played pro basketball in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. He is the older brother of basketball player Malik Monk.

Early life

Monk attended, East Poinsett County High School and was a 4.0 student and a

letterman Letterman may refer to: * Letterman (sports), a classification of high school or college athlete in the United States People * David Letterman (born 1947), American television talk show host ** ''Late Night with David Letterman'', talk show that ...

and

. Also, he was the Valedictorian of his graduating class. He was an All-State honoree in both sports, 2004 Mr. Basketball of Arkansas as a senior, and was named the

National Football Foundation The National Football Foundation (NFF) is a non-profit organization to promote amateur American football on all levels throughout the United States and develop "the qualities of leadership, sportsmanship, competitive zeal and the drive for academi ...

's Scholar Athlete of the Year.

Football career

College

Monk led all SEC freshmen in receiving in 2004 and set a school record for receptions by a freshman with 37 catches, breaking Richard Smith's school record of 33. He garnered Freshman All-SEC honors for catching 37 balls for 569 yards and six

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Scoring a touchdown grants the team that scored it 6 points. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchd ...

s. Monk continued to improve in his sophomore season by catching 35 passes for a team-high 476 yards and seven touchdowns. In his junior season of 2006, Monk had his best statistical season with 50 catches for a career-high 962 yards. Monk broke a school record with 11 touchdown passes caught and averaged 19.2 yards per catch. He helped Arkansas win the SEC West Division championship that year. Monk was sidelined for most of his senior season due to an injury in the offseason that required two surgeries. Of the seven games he did play in, Monk only caught 16 passes for 144 yards and three touchdowns, tying him for seventh in the SEC for career touchdowns. Monk still holds the Arkansas school record for career touchdown receptions, with 27.

Statistics

Professional

Chicago Bears

Monk was selected in the seventh round (248th overall) of the

by the

. Monk signed a four-year

rookie A rookie is a person new to an occupation, profession, or hobby. In sports, a ''rookie'' is a professional athlete in their first season (or year). In contrast with a veteran who has experience, a rookie is typically considered needing more tra ...

deal with the Bears on May 31, 2008. He was waived on August 24.

New York Giants

On August 26, 2008, Monk was claimed off waivers by the

after the team waived/injured wide receiver

Craphonso Thorpe Craphonso Ja'won "Cro" Thorpe (born June 27, 1983) is a former American football wide receiver. He was selected by the Kansas City Chiefs in the fourth round of the 2005 NFL draft. He played college football at Florida State. Thorpe was also a ...

. However, he was waived by the team four days later during final cuts. On August 31, he was re-signed to the team's

practice squad In gridiron football, the practice squad, also called the taxi squad or practice roster, is a group of players signed by a team but not part of their main roster. They serve as extra players during the team's practices, often as part of the scou ...

. He was released from the practice squad on September 8 after wide receiver Taye Biddle was signed.

Carolina Panthers

Monk was signed by the

on April 28, 2009, after impressing scouts at Arkansas's pro day.

Basketball career

College

As a college freshman, Monk also played 10 games with the Razorbacks basketball team after completing the football season. On November 18, 2008, KARK 4 News in

Little Rock, Arkansas Little Rock is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Arkansas, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city's population was 202,591 as of the 2020 census. The six-county Central Arkan ...

reported that Monk was possibly coming back for his last semester to play college basketball for the

Arkansas Razorbacks The Arkansas Razorbacks, also known as the Hogs, are the College athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletics teams representing the University of Arkansas, located in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Fayetteville. The University of Arkans ...

. Monk was allowed to play as he had basketball eligibility remaining and was never a professional athlete in that sport. Monk's breakout game would come on December 30, 2008, when Arkansas hosted the

Oklahoma Sooners The Oklahoma Sooners are the college athletics in the United States , athletic teams that represent the University of Oklahoma, located in Norman, Oklahoma, Norman. The 19 men's and women's varsity teams are called the "Sooners", a reference to ...

, ranked fourth in that week's

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

Poll. Monk scored 12 points and added six rebounds and one steal while holding his ground defensively against the Sooners' star player,

Blake Griffin Blake Austin Griffin (born March 16, 1989) is an American former professional basketball player. Griffin primarily played with the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and played college basketball for the Oklahoma ...

, in only his third game with the Razorbacks of the 2008-2009 season. Monk was officially removed from the roster on February 13, 2009, by the University of Arkansas after several weeks of not dressing out for the team, for a suspected undisclosed NCAA rules infraction.

Professional

Monk signed with Hertener Löwen of the German

ProB The ProB is the German basketball league system, third-tier level Sports league, league of professional club basketball in Germany. The league comprises 24 teams, separated into a Northern and a Southern Division. Officially, the ProB is part of ...

league in 2010. Appearing in 25 games for the team during the 2010–11 season, he averaged 22.2 points, 9.3 rebounds, 3.1 steals, 2.2 assists and 1.2 blocks a contest, while being named to the Eurobasket.com All-Pro B First-team and being recognized as the Eurobasket.com All-ProB Defensive Player of the Year. In 2011–12, Monk was instrumental in helping the Gotha Rockets win the ProB title and received Eurobasket.com All-ProB Player of the Year honors, after tallying 15.3 points as well as 7.9 boards a game.

Life after sports

After playing professional basketball in Germany for two years, Monk began the

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

program at the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States. It is the Flagship campus, flagship campus of the University of Arkan ...

. He graduated in 2014.

References

External links

Arkansas Razorbacks bioCarolina Panthers bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Monk, Marcus 1986 births Living people Players of American football from Arkansas American football wide receivers Arkansas Razorbacks football players Arkansas Razorbacks men's basketball players Chicago Bears players New York Giants players Carolina Panthers players People from Lepanto, Arkansas Basketball players from Arkansas American men's basketball players