The April sun beat down on the Habitat for Humanity construction crew working hard to assemble a new home in Nashville’s Ewing Park neighborhood. Circular saws cut lumber. Brooms swept up stray sawdust. Hammers pounded nails. Music blared. Sweat dripped from sunbaked brows. And a pair of hands with an iron grip slightly more accustomed to throwing spirals than turning screws helped guide the frame of a wall into place.

The framework secure, Marcus Mariota, BS ’14 (general science)—Heisman Trophy winner, then-quarterback of the NFL’s Tennessee Titans, and the grandson of a contractor—stepped back to evaluate his work. Thanks to Mariota’s new Motiv8 Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, and the Nissan Heisman House, a family of refugees from Sudan’s Darfur region were one step closer to owning their first home in the United States. Mariota sized up his wall frame, then went right back to work.

The idea of giving back is not new to Mariota. From an early age, parents Alana and Toa instilled in him and brother Matt, a former University of Oregon tight end, the importance of helping others. At the UO, Marcus was known for taking food from the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex cafeteria and giving it to the homeless people he would see on his way back to campus after football practice, and he was a regular speaker at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Emerald Valley.

After being selected No. 2 overall by the Titans in the 2015 NFL Draft, Mariota created the Motiv8 Foundation to give children programs and activities that would help them succeed at school and in life.

“We wanted to use Motiv8 as a resource for students to help further their education through sports,” said Mariota. “I was blessed to have my parents around to fulfill those opportunities for me, and we wanted to be able to give kids the same opportunities.”

The Motiv8 Foundation hosted local children at the Tennessee Titans v Pittsburgh Steelers preseason game on August 25, 2019. Prior to the game, Marcus Mariota signed autographs and posed for photos on the field with the children.

Mariota was hands-on from the beginning. In the foundation’s first year, he built the house in Nashville, and even joined new owners Mohammed Berema, his wife Khadija Aldom, and their seven children at the ribbon cutting ceremony. He and Motiv8 also provided school supplies for children in Nashville and Honolulu and raised money for his fledgling foundation by holding golf tournaments in Oahu and Springfield.

And he did all of that while carving out a career for himself in the NFL. The Titans had won five total games in the two seasons prior to drafting him, then won 12 in his first two years; in his third, he led them to the playoffs for the first time since 2008.

In his NFL debut, Mariota became the youngest quarterback in NFL history to record a perfect passer rating when he threw four touchdown passes in a 42-14 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In his third game, he became the youngest quarterback since the franchise moved to Tennessee to throw for 300 yards in a game. In his eighth game, an overtime win over the Saints, he became the first rookie in NFL history to have multiple games with four touchdown passes and no interceptions.

And, all the while, the Motiv8 Foundation kept growing and helping more and more people. In 2019 alone, the foundation hosted two golf tournaments and two job fairs, fed the homeless housed in shelters across Oahu, provided dog food to the Humane Society and SPCA, sponsored Special Olympics Hawaii’s Cheer for Champions, held Motiv8 nights for Boys and Girls Club and Special Olympics participants before UO and Hawaii football games, partnered with former NFL running back Warrick Dunn to provide two homes for single mother families in Nashville, and raised money for military veterans who survived breast cancer through My Cause My Cleats.

Marcus Mariota is hands-on with the Motiv8 Foundation, and the list of groups he has helped off the field is as long as his list of accomplishments on the field.

“I balance all of that through time management,” said Mariota. “Going to the University of Oregon and having to learn how to balance school and football really helped me develop this life skill; staying organized and prioritizing what needs to be done. The work that Motiv8 is doing is bigger than football, and it’s just as important for me to give back to the communities that helped to get me where I am now.”

Famously, one of Mariota’s many talents is his ability to think on his feet.

Ducks fans will fondly remember the 2015 Rose Bowl win over Florida State, where Mariota faked a handoff to Byron Marshall, rolled out to his right, then opted to keep the ball instead of pitching it to Royce Freeman, BA ’17 (general social science), and ran it in for a 23-yard touchdown.

Titans fans—and the legion of UO fans who follow Mariota’s every move in the NFL—won’t soon forget the 2018 playoff win over the Kansas City Chiefs, where he scrambled to his left from the six-yard-line and lofted a pass intended for receiver Corey Davis. Chiefs defensive back Darrelle Revis got a hand on the ball and tipped it, but Mariota caught the deflection and ran it in for a touchdown, becoming the first player in 20 years to catch a touchdown pass from himself.

In 2020, after five injury-plagued seasons with the Titans that saw him play for three different head coaches and four different offensive coordinators, the team that drafted him let him go. He did not remain a free agent for long, though, and the Las Vegas Raiders signed him to back up starter Derek Carr. A pectoral injury saw Mariota spend a stint on injured reserve, but in his lone appearance of the season, replacing an injured Carr, he threw for 226 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 88 yards and another touchdown against Justin Herbert, BS '19 (general science) and the Los Angeles Chargers in a performance that showed what he’s still capable of.

“I was excited for the season and to just play football again with the guys,” Mariota said. “The extended off-season gave me an opportunity to get healthy and have some extra time to prepare for a new team. The early injury was something that was unexpected, but I felt that I was able to contribute, where I could, whatever the team needed.”

Justin Herbert and Marcus Mariota embrace at midfield after Herbert's Los Angeles Chargers defeated Mariota's Las Vegas Raiders in overtime on December 17, 2020. Getty Images.

While Mariota was adjusting to a new city and a new team, the world itself was adjusting to a “new normal.” With the COVID-19 pandemic raging, people were sent home to work, schools were closed for in-person instruction, and hospitals filled to overflowing with patients. At one point in December, one out of every 166 Nevada residents was hospitalized. Students who relied on school not just for learning and socializing but also for meals were going hungry, and healthcare workers were overworked and nearing breaking point.

Once again, Mariota and the Motiv8 Foundation stepped up to help. The foundation partnered with the Island Insurance Foundation to provide 1,000 “grab and go” meals each day for students, and up to 500 meals to healthcare professionals, in Honolulu.

ABC Stores and Bamboo Catering prepared the meals, while volunteers with the Center for Tomorrow’s Leaders distributed them, following guidance from the Department of Education to ensure proper handling and safety. Meals were placed on tables outside the Kauluwela and Palolo elementary schools for students to pick up, to avoid physical contact between themselves and the volunteers.

The program was then expanded to feed healthcare professionals at Straub Medical Center and Kaiser Permanente Moanalua Medical Center, feeding those who were otherwise focused on saving lives during the pandemic. In addition, a number of meals were also provided to families living in a new apartment complex that was opened to shelter survivors of domestic violence.

Healthcare workers in Honolulu with meals provided by the Motiv8 Foundation. Mariota's foundation provided 500 meals each day to medical professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We had to get creative with how we were going to reach communities in a safe, effective way and what were the priority needs,” said Mariota, who was unable to help in-person as he was in California training for the upcoming NFL season.

“Not only did we have to get creative with outreach, but how as a foundation we were going to generate the availability to match these needs. We were not able to host our annual golf tournaments, which have been some of our biggest fundraisers. Luckily. we had partnered with Sweet Cheeks Winery out of Oregon, who released a limited-edition wine collection with a collaborative logo. We also launched our Instagram and Twitter accounts that gave us a new platform to reach people where we did giveaways and promotions.”

When he wasn't providing meals for students, healthcare professionals, and domestic violence victims—and taking on Justin Herbert—in 2020, Mariota and the Motiv8 Foundation helped provide 9,000 meals at shelters on Thanksgiving in May, Thanksgiving, and Christmas; found employment for 24 people in homeless job programs; donated more than 1,500 holiday gifts in partnership with Dutch Bros Coffee; provided 750 school supply backpacks to youth groups in Oregon and Hawaii; gifted full orthodontic care and treatments for a family with two young children in Las Vegas; and more.

2021 is bringing with it plenty of uncertainty. Two years after its discovery, COVID-19 is still not under control (this feature was written from the comfort of the author’s apartment, as the UO Alumni Association has been working remotely since March 2020) and the USA is months away from having enough vaccines to protect everyone. Mariota may have his fifth head coach and sixth offensive coordinator in seven years to adjust to, as his name has come up frequently in NFL offseason trade and free agency rumors, with the Washington Football Team, New England Patriots, and Philadelphia Eagles suggested as potential suitors.

But one thing that will always remain constant is Mariota’s unwavering desire to help others.

“This entire journey has been incredible,” said Mariota. “It takes a village to raise a child, and I truly believe that. I was very fortunate to have people and experiences along the way that helped me to succeed, and to be able to provide some of those same opportunities for others and give inspiration is special.

“Growing up in Hawaii, the spirit of Ohana (family) and sense of community is very powerful and something that was instilled in me at a very young age by my parents, and to be able to give a part of that back has really meant a lot.”

 - Story by Damian Foley, UO Communications. Images courtesy Motiv8 Foundation unless otherwise noted.

Marcus Mariota with the students of Likelike Elementary School in Honolulu.