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Brandon Marshall had a point.
ESPN’s re-airing of a 2012 story on the Bears wide receiver’ past issues with domestic violence was lazy and unfair to him. The only connection that story had with any current topic regarding domestic violence in the NFL is that it involved a star player and accusations of a crime being committed.
Never mind that the accusations were 6-8 years old. Never mind that the subject was never convicted. Never mind that the subject had already been punished — albeit lightly — by the NFL.
And never mind that the subject has turned his life around and has had no legal trouble since that story aired two years ago.
None of that apparently mattered to ESPN. Why bother come up with something new when the work had already been done? All ESPN had to do to stay relevant in today’s NFL domestic violence conversation was press play on a story from two years ago.
It was lazy. It was unfair. And Brandon Marshall had a point.
Unfortunately, that point was lost Thursday at Halas Hall, and it was Marshall’s own doing.
“I try not to get defensive, but I am because it’s been six or seven years and watching that ESPN piece run again and be depicted as if it was today when it was shot two years ago and them sitting in my living room in front of my wife and tell us this is about your camp and your community event, it pissed me off. It pissed me off,” Marshall said.
That was 20 seconds. Twenty seconds of a 25 minute opening statement within a 40 minute press conference.
Those 20 seconds were all Marshall really needed to bring up a completely fair point. ESPN lazily used his name and his story to address a topic that today is about Ray Rice, Greg Hardy, Ray McDonald and, if we extend the conversation to child abuse, Adrian Peterson.
Of course, Marshall can’t run from his past. And his past still serves as an example of domestic violence in the NFL. So if ESPN wanted to incorporate some of that 2012 E:60 story into a new feature on the topic, fine. But even in that case, it would only be fair to show how Marshall has moved on from those issues and learned from them.
Marshall had a point. And in 20 seconds he made that point.
It’s just too bad 19 minutes and 23 seconds had already elapsed from the moment he started talking. In those 19-plus minutes, Marshall had handed out a 12-page document turning the accusations on his ex-girlfriend, Rasheedah Watley, the original accuser in the eight-year-old saga.
Here was Marshall, upset that his name was being dragged through the mud, doing the exact same thing to Watley.
Pages 1 -2: A letter from a counselor stating: “Ms. Watley should seek professional counseling. She has a quick and volatile temper that frequently seemed to escalate into violent behavior … Ms Watley’s volatile mood and behavior have resulted in significant relationship problems with Mr. Marshall.”
Pages 3-5: A partial jury transcript that does not include cross-examination. For someone upset that his side of the story isn’t being told, where’s the other side of this story?
Pages 6-9: Demands for money written by Watley’s attorneys, which is perfectly legal to settle these cases. It is not extortion as it is seemingly being presented.
Page 10: A letter from Rasheedah Watley to Roger Goodell in which Watley claims: “He never hurt me or hit me, I was pressured by my family to make up certain things to get money. I was told to say that Brandon hit me and hurt me so that I could get him to pay to keep me quiet.”
Not surprisingly, when put under oath at Marshall’s trial in 2009, Watley changed her story again and said Marshall “begged” her to write the letter, according to The Denver Post’s coverage of the trial. Watley is quoted as saying under oath: “It was a mistake. I shouldn’t have done that. I thought it would help Brandon.”
Pages 11-12: More demands to settle the case with Watley’s attorney claiming: “I’m attaching the original demand letter I sent via certified mail to Brandon last year which was ignored. Since then, my client has been the victim of more acts of violence at his hands.”
Throughout Thursday’s press conference, Marshall referred to “his side of the story.”
So is his side of the story that he was a victim too?
“No, it’s not that,” he responded. “Listen, I just think it’s time for our world. (Domestic violence) is not a problem in the NFL – it’s an epidemic in our world. It’s not the NFL’s job to raise men. We’re kidding ourselves if we think it’s the NFL’s job to take boys from college and raise them to men.”
He’s right that domestic violence is a problem that goes beyond the NFL, but what does that have to do with the question? Given a chance to clarify exactly what his side of the story is, Marshall declined.
It was just one example of Marshall not staying on point when he had some very valid things to say. He was admirable in his detailed recollection of being raised in a home where his mom was an alcoholic and a victim of both domestic and sexual abuse. In digging through the press conference transcript, there are good reminders that people deserve to tell their side of the story before conclusions are made in the court of public opinion. And yes, men can be victims of domestic violence too.
These are all good conversations to have.
But unfortunately those messages were overshadowed by the apparent victim blaming when no one was even questioning his guilt or innocence — at least not anymore. Quite frankly, the ESPN story doesn’t even come off all that negative, despite the fact that he claims he “probably lost $50 million worth of endorsements and salary” because of it. Meanwhile, the majority of people who paid attention to Allred’s press conference Wednesday understand that she was attacking Goodell, not Marshall, even if Marshall’s case was being used to do it.
Again, have a problem with your name being dragged through the mud? Fine, but don’t do the same thing to someone else the very next day.
Thursday’s press conference could have been a bright spot in a dismal month for the NFL. Instead, it was just a court hearing and therapy session that went astray.
I have zero clue what he's trying to say.
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