Martin, who finished his 11 years in the N.F.L. with 14,101 yards rushing, good for fourth on the league’s career list, did not grow up yearning to take on tacklers. He did not watch his hometown Pittsburgh Steelers every Sunday, imagining someday he might compete on the same field.  Martin did not play football until his senior year at Taylor Allderdice High School in Pittsburgh. And that was only because his mother, Rochella Dixon, who was raising him as a single parent, insisted he be involved in some sport. She saw it as the only way to keep him from the crime and drugs that plagued their neighborhood.  Lawlessness had already claimed the life of his grandmother, Eleanor Johnson, who was found murdered in her bed, a knife still protruding from her bloody chest. When Martin was 15, he had a gun put to his head amid circumstances he has always declined to describe. The trigger was pulled six or seven times, but the gun did not fire. Given a reprieve, Martin knew it was time to change the direction of his life.  “I was somewhat forced to play football because of the circumstances I grew up in; it became my escape,” said Martin, 39, who was forced to retire because of injury in 2005. “Who knows where I’d be without football.”  Martin is part of a Hall of Fame class that includes the offensive linemen Willie Roaf and Dermontti Dawson, defensive linemen Cortez Kennedy and Chris Doleman, and defensive back Jack Butler.  Martin followed an inconsistent and injury-filled career at the University of Pittsburgh by joining Barry Sanders as the only running backs to amass at least 1,000 yards in each of their first 10 N.F.L. seasons. He later became the oldest back to win a rushing title with a career-high 1,697 yards when he was 31. But it was clear he was determined to gain ground in another sense.  “He understood that playing pro football was just a platform if he handled his career correctly,” said Herman Edwards, his former coach with the Jets, Martin’s team for eight seasons. (He also played three seasons for the New England Patriots.)  Once Martin earned a spot on the Patriots’ roster as a third-round draft choice in 1995, he began setting aside 12 to 15 percent of every paycheck to establish the Job Foundation. The organization is named after the man Martin views as one of the Bible’s most significant figures because of his unwavering faith.  Martin now commits 20 to 25 percent of his income to the foundation, which initially worked to aid single mothers. It has been expanded to include education and housing needs, and includes an initiative to send surgeons to third-world countries to perform needed operations for the poor and uninsured.  As the yards gained and the hits absorbed increased, the 5-foot-11, 210-pound Martin steadily developed business contacts and interests with the ultimate goal of becoming an N.F.L. owner. Martin said there were two ownership opportunities that he was financially qualified for, but he backed away from them because he did not feel either was quite right. The league has just one principal owner — Jacksonville’s Shahid Khan — who is a member of a minority. But Martin said: “I’m not worried about the minority aspect of it. I think I’d be one of the owners who hopefully one day can see the game from a whole new perspective. I am really interested in bringing that player’s perspective.”  Martin points to Dary Stone, a lawyer and commercial developer in Texas, as a business mentor and “father figure.” He said his father, Curtis Martin Sr., was a drug addict and abusive to his mother. Martin said he was relieved when his father left home when he was 5. Martin and Stone met soon after Martin joined Bill Parcells with the Jets in 1998.  “When he was playing football, we didn’t really talk about football,” Stone, 59, said. “Curtis would call me and say, What do you think about this? What about that? It was everything but football. It was business opportunities or decisions he had to make in his personal life.”  Stone added: “Football was a means to an end, not the end. Football was a good platform for him to further his business interests and his faith. It wasn’t about making a bunch of money and sitting around and yukking it up.”  Martin was so intent on building his character during his N.F.L. career that he said he often spent two days a week picking up teammates’ dirty laundry after they went home in an attempt to teach himself humility.  “I didn’t love playing the game,” he said. “But I love what the game taught me.”  He is so careful to surround himself with the right people that Stone said he was asked to interview women Martin dated. One who apparently had the correct answers was Carolina Williams; she married Martin in May 2011.  “Curtis does all things incredibly disciplined, incredibly right,” Stone said.  Parcells, who will present Martin during the Hall of Fame ceremonies, used to delight him by telling reporters he was the best player at every practice. Edwards always pointed to his shining example.  “I would tell our rookies, ‘You watch Curtis Martin’ ” Edwards said. “ ‘Watch how he works. Watch how he prepares.’ ”  They can still pick up some pointers. Martin remains focused on preparing to become an owner, an opportunity that he is confident will come. If it does, it will merely be the latest step in a career focused on continual progress.  “I’ve learned to let the hole open,” he said. “Until it does, I’ll be patient.”
Former Jet Curtis Martin, who will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame Saturday, has his eyes set on becoming a team owner.