MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) -- Former Kansas State football captain Nick Leckey is graduating and speaking at the university's December commencement nine years after leaving for the NFL without a degree.

Leckey earned a Super Bowl ring in 2009 as a center with the New Orleans Saints. He also played for the Arizona Cardinals and the St. Louis Rams.

But he remained 46 credits short of the college degree he'd promised his mother and his aunt he would finish. After leaving pro football and moving from Phoenix to Kansas City, he began taking classes at Kansas State as a distance student.

Now, he's about to receive a bachelor's degree in hotel and restaurant management. Leckey also will give the student commencement address Dec. 8 for the College of Human Ecology.