Martavis Bryant is currently a wide receiver for the Oakland Raiders, who were previously on the list of the Pittsburgh Steelers who selected the 6ft 4in, 210lb player in the fourth round of the 2014 NFL Draft. Read on to learn more about his career, suspensions, and relationship history.
Martavis Bryant’s biography
Martavis Bryant was born to a single mother, Roberta Bryant, on December 20, 1991 in Calhoun Falls, South Carolina. His mother worked in a textile factory to care for her son, who showed exceptional athletic ability from an early age.
Bryant was a standout athlete in both football and track as he competed for Calhoun Falls High School. He managed 44 receptions for 776 yards and 6 touchdowns in his junior year before transferring to TL Hanna High School where he recorded 70 receptions for 722 yards and 11 touchdowns as a senior. Despite these outstanding performances, Bryant was academically deficient and as a result had to spend a year at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Virginia to improve his grades and get a chance to play college football.
In 2011, Martavis Bryant accepted an offer to attend Clemson University, where he got to play alongside some future NFL players like Sammy Watkins and DeAndre Hopkins. In his freshman season, Bryant managed 2 starts from 14 games as he recorded 9 receptions for 220 receiving yards and 2 touchdowns to help his team win the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship.
Bryant showed good improvement the following year when he recorded 10 receptions for 305 yards and 4 touchdowns. Development continued into his junior year when he recorded 42 receptions for 828 yards and 7 touchdowns. That statistic appeared to have secured him a spot in the NFL, so he chose not to return for a senior year and declared for the 2014 NFL draft, where he was selected 118th overall by the Pittsburgh Steelers.
NFL career statistics
In his rookie season, despite spending the first, Martavis Bryant was inactive for six weeks and managed 26 receptions for 549 receipts and 8 touchdowns. His yards per receiver rate continued to rank first among NFL-wide receivers, putting him on the radar of football enthusiasts going into the following season.
However, he found himself suspended from the league for the first four games of the 2015 season. When he was able to return to the game, the big receiver found form as he managed a string of career-high single-game stats. Most notably during that time, he scored the infamous touchdown that was later considered a no-catch when he did a frontflip to maintain control of the ball when he caught Ben Roethlisberger’s pass. At the end of the season, Bryant had 50 receptions for 765 yards and 6 touchdowns.
Martavis Bryant missed the entire 2016 season through suspension but was reinstated in 2017 where he recorded 50 receptions for 603 yards and 3 touchdowns. In 2018, the Steelers traded Bryant to the Oakland Raiders, who signed him to a year.
Why was he suspended?
Martavis Bryant has been suspended twice from the NFL; first for a few games in 2015 and a second time for the entire 2016 season after violating the league’s substance abuse policy.
Who is Martavis Bryant’s girlfriend?
Martavis Bryant is in a long-term relationship with Deja Hiott, the mother of his youngest child, a son named Kalle King Alexander Bryant, who was born on March 23, 2017. Bryant has two older daughters by two different women; first Brooke Bryant from his relationship with Janessa Symone and London Bryant from his relationship with Jasmine Keesley.
Hiott, who is an Instagram Model, was born on 28. August 1996 and is believed to be originally from Albany, South Carolina. It’s not entirely clear how long she and Bryant have been together, but the couple appear to have formed a very close relationship that has made her very supportive and open about her husband’s career and behavior.
She made headlines in the 2017 season after confirming reports on Twitter that Bryant was seeking a trade away from the Steelers. She made headlines again after she accused her husband of cheating on her while he was sitting next to another woman in a video, although it was not clear that Bryant and the woman in question were actually dating. Hiott has since posted another tweet apologizing for the tirade and allegations she made against her child’s father.