Marcus Forston played professional football, so he's known to be a large human being. He needed all of his massive frame on Friday. According to reports, he was one of several people to help pull a man out from under a vehicle during a drive-by shooting. It wasn't just a random act of kindness for the former New England Patriots lineman, though; it's just another day on the job in Atlanta as a police officer.
Forston to the rescue
Throughout Friday, Chris Jose of WSBTV was closely following a drive-by shooting that resulted in a man getting trapped underneath a vehicle.
The visuals from the incident are gutting, but seven cops in Atlanta came to the rescue. According to Jose, one of those cops was former Patriots defensive lineman Marcus Forston.
Former @Patriots DL Marcus Forston was 1 of 7 @Atlanta_Police officers who pulled a man pinned underneath a car during drive-by shooting. pic.twitter.com/vCXaTAbFB8
— Chris Jose (@ChrisJoseWSB) August 4, 2017
Forston has been out of the league for several years but took some time during his career in 2014 to try out law enforcement after majoring in criminology at the University of Miami. A post on Canes Daily showed him being sworn into the Atlanta police force officially on June 2, 2016. Since then, he has been going about his career, much more quietly than how people viewed him while he was playing football in New England.
That all changed on Friday when Forston emerged as one of the heroes of the day. He posted a few articles about the incident on Twitter, something he rarely appears to do.
Forston's career with the Patriots
After an amazing high school career, Forston was commonly ranked as the top defensive tackle recruit in the country. He chose to continue his career at Miami due to its proximity to his home.
He was injured twice during his collegiate career, so he decided to skip his senior season to enter the NFL Draft. He wasn't selected, however, leading the Patriots to pick him up as a free agent in 2012.
His career was a series of ups and downs, but mostly downs. He struggled to maintain his spot on the team. He only made it into one game during his rookie campaign.
Forston then went from being waived by the Patriots to making it back to the practice squad to eventually starting a game during the 2013 season. By the end of the season, though, he was off the team again. By the following season, he was out of the league altogether.
Some will see the irony in what he did on Friday. After all, Patriots aren't necessarily the most beloved people in Atlanta following last year's Super Bowl. But the local community will probably make an exception for the heroic Forston.
