Former Northridge star drafted by Detroit Lions

By WVUA 23 Sports Reporter Grace Brister

Friday night was life changing for former Northridge Jaguar’s star Brodric Martin as he was drafted by the Detroit Lions in the 3rd round with the 96th overall pick.

The defensive tackle, who graduated from Northridge in 2017, started his career at The University of North Alabama before transferring to Western Kentucky University in 2021.

Martin started all 114 games for Western Kentucky in 2022, and he was named honorable mention All-Conference after tallying 31 tackles, 1.5 sacks, seven quarterback hurries, a forced fumble and two pass breakups.

In two seasons at WKU, he recorded 62 tackles and four sacks.

Martin said this was something he used to dream about as a child, and it still feels unreal. He described what it was like to get the phone call from Lion’s Head Coach Dan Campbell.

“He said, ‘Do you want to be a lion?’ My whole heart just dropped,” Marin said. “I said ‘Yes, of course.’ I ran down six flights of stairs to get to the bottom to get to my mama because she was down there setting up stuff for the draft party. We hadn’t even gotten to the draft party yet.  I was just running all through the hotel…It was crazy.”

Martin said he would not have been able to get to this point without God and his mother. Going forward, he said he is going to give 100% every day, and he wants to do what he can to help the organization be the best it can be. Martin said he knows what it is like top have a dream, and his advice to other players is not to give up on those dreams.

“Whatever you want, work at it every single day,” Martin said. “Eventually it’s gonna work out. There isn’t a timeline on it. God is always on time. So, you just keep God first, keep praying, and work at your craft, whatever you want to do, and it will work out I promise you.”