Both Bradley Marquez, the NFL wide receiver, and the Texas Tech men’s basketball team found themselves in unfamiliar environments on the night of April 8.

Marquez watched the Red Raiders intently on television, as he has countless times since arriving on their campus in 2011 and earning his degree from the university in 2015.

Tonight, however, Texas Tech was playing for the national championship in Minneapolis — the school’s first appearance inside the Final Four — and Marquez sat in the clubhouse at Segra Park in Columbia, South Carolina, home of the Columbia Fireflies, the Class A affiliate of the New York Mets.

“It was an exciting time,” Marquez told Mets Minors over the phone. “I love Texas Tech and I’ll always be a part of the university, so just to see the success they had, putting our brand on the big stage was just awesome.”

It had been almost six years — 2,081 days to be exact — since his name had been penciled into the starting lineup of a professional baseball game. But here he was, giving the sport he has loved since his childhood another shot following an NFL career that had entered its final chapters.

Texas Tech came up short against the University of Virginia that night, but for Marquez, who had hit a double less than an hour earlier, there was plenty to celebrate.

“Just to play under the lights in meaningful games now, it’s a lot of fun,” said Marquez, who had been promoted to the Fireflies earlier in the day following nearly two months of intrasquad games and workouts at the organization’s minor league complex in Port Saint Lucie, Florida. “Spring training was helpful just to gear up, but to get back out here and play in front of people and compete as a team it has been a lot of fun.”

Bradley Marquez! 2,081 days after his last professional baseball game, the former NFL wide receiver doubles in his season debut with Columbia. #Mets pic.twitter.com/XkcByAmgW4

— Jacob Resnick (@Jacob_Resnick) April 9, 2019

In the summer of 2011, the Mets made Marquez their 16th-round draft choice from Odessa High School in Odessa, Texas, a city known more for its central role in H.G. Bissinger’s bestseller Friday Night Lights than for producing professional baseball players. Only one Broncho, left-handed relief pitcher Rich Wortham (who, coincidentally, was drafted by the Mets in 1972 but did not sign) has played in the major leagues.

The Mets and Marquez, a four-star recruit as a running back, reached an agreement after the draft that allowed him to play baseball in the summer and football in the fall. The arrangement ultimately lasted two seasons. After playing 27 games with the rookie-level Kingsport Mets in 2013, Marquez made the decision to focus solely on football. It was a pigskin pilgrimage that would take him from Lubbock to St. Louis, then to Los Angeles and finally to Detroit.

He was frequently utilized on special teams but did catch 16 passes for 125 yards for the Rams across two seasons. When Marquez was waived by the Lions after week one in 2018, he waited for another team to call.

The phone never rang, so he picked it up over the winter and made one of his own. It was to the Mets.

“I still love baseball and I just wanted to get back out there and compete,” he said. “I just had to shift my focus towards working out for a different sport, getting in the cage, throwing, and doing all of that in the couple months leading up to spring training.”

The Mets had never officially released him, so Marquez, now 26, technically had to first express his interest in returning to the team. It was mutual, so an invite to spring training was extended.

“My timing and everything — compared to guys who had been playing while I had been away — was a little off so it was really a day-to-day process,” he said. “As far as the sport and just getting back and competing, tracking balls in the outfield, and things like that it really just came second nature to me.

“Being a receiver and having had to run routes, that translated well,” he said with a chuckle.

Between Marquez and fellow minor league outfielder Tim Tebow, the Mets had set themselves up quite well for the annual Grapefruit League flag football tournament (if only that were true). Marquez did, however, team up with the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner during exhibition games and had the opportunity to chat in the dugout and clubhouse.

“I’ve been a fan of his from the very beginning, with all the great things he’s been able to accomplish,” Marquez said. “It was just awesome to meet him, being able to pick his brain and go back and forth about guys we both played with or coaches we had.”

[Pro-Bowl cornerback Janoris Jenkins was teammates with Tebow at Florida and played with Marquez on the Rams in 2015. Mike Smith, the defensive coordinator at Texas Tech during Marquez’s final two seasons there served as the linebackers coach with Tebow’s Jets in 2012.]

Other meaningful conversations were had between Marquez and his Kingsport teammates who remain in the organization. While some — Dominic Smith, Jeff McNeil, and Steven Matz, to name a few — spent all of spring training in the major league clubhouse, Marquez was able to reconnect with Gavin Cecchini, Corey Oswalt, and others who were sent over to minor league camp in March.

“They were surprised to see me back there,” Marquez said. “They had been following me throughout my football career, some had kept in touch through social media. It was just nice to see them in person and hang out, catch up, and talk about our success and how far we’ve come since starting out together.”

He would also latch onto fellow Texas Tech alumni Barrett Barnes and Zach Rheams, the latter of whom is currently teammates with Marquez in Columbia.

“When you go to the same school you have a lot of similarities,” he said.

Mets right-handed pitching prospect Bryce Hutchinson pitching to Bradley Marquez. pic.twitter.com/PAR44uu2EU

— Michael Mayer (@mikemayerMMO) March 18, 2019

Marquez isn’t just some football player attempting to play baseball as a gimmick. Once upon a time, Baseball America had ranked him as the Mets’ 25th-best prospect. As they wrote prior to the 2012 season: 

“His top-of-the-scale speed translates to the baseball diamond, where he can get from home to first base in 4.0 seconds from the right side of the plate. He played shortstop in high school, but scouts envision him fitting best in center field because of his ability to cover so much ground. Marquez has a clean swing he uses to slash line drives into the gaps and then run. He has below-average power, but that’s OK given his positional profile and projected role as leadoff batter. Marquez has a passion for baseball and sold New York on his makeup.”

Makeup. Passion. He’s always had the athleticism, but now he believes he can put it all together and ascend up the organizational ladder.

“I don’t just want to get to Double- and Triple-A,” Marquez said. “This is something that I’m excited to have the opportunity to do. Having played in the NFL, I know how fun it is in the Show. I would really love to achieve that in baseball as well.”

Marquez has the luxury of a contact list full of football stars, just in case he needs a reminder of the heights he has reached as a professional. That includes the reigning NFL Most Valuable Player, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, whose first year at Texas Tech overlapped with Marquez’s last.

While they have never directly discussed Mahomes’ father, who pitched in 92 games for the Mets from 1999 to 2000, Marquez did host him on the quarterback’s official visit to Lubbock and the pair shared adjacent lockers during the 2014 season. Mahomes found Marquez in the end zone three times during the former’s collegiate-high six-touchdown game against Baylor on November 29.

“We were really close at the time,” Marquez said. “My last four or five games in my senior year were his first games starting as a freshman, and he’s clearly running away with it and has done some amazing things already.”

Considering he was fresh out of high school when he was last with the Mets, Marquez says his 32 games of NFL experience has affected his maturity level, but his love of the game of baseball has never wavered.

Although he has not officially filed for retirement from professional football, baseball is back to being his sole focus.

“Being a professional and knowing what it takes to be at the top and stay there and the day-to-day preparations; those things do translate [to the baseball field],” he said. “All those things I’ve done are great, but at the end of the day I still just enjoy competing and having a good time.”