Was reading MMQB and Peter King was talking about the episode which debuts on NFL Network this Friday 9/19 at 8pm. From his MMQB article today.... Sounds pretty interesting to me
I consider this the ultimate compliment for an NFL Films piece: “I wish Steve Sabol were alive to see it.” That’s what went through my mind after watching Brandon Marshall: A Football Life, which debuts this week on NFL Network. Producers Shannon Furman and James Weiner got Marshall (and, surprisingly, Jay Cutler) to open up on things that surprised me. Marshall is candid about everything else in his life, including his mental illness. Much of it is painful. I would have liked to have seen more, however, on the disturbing 2011 stabbing incident in South Florida—Marshall and wife Michi Nogami-Marshall had a domestic violence incident that resulted in Marshall being hospitalized with a stomach wound, and the details in this show are unfortunately lacking.
Absent that, the admissions throughout are compelling. “I’ve been trapped my whole life, not by men or cages, but by my emotions,” he says, and explains how he spent three months in 2011 in intensive therapy. Marshall takes the crew to the Pittsburgh neighborhood where he grew up, with some stark footage about how hard it is to get out of environments like that and flourish. His agent, Kennard McGuire, said, “He has destroyed maybe five of my vacations.” His mother once told Michi-Nogami, struggling in the relationship with Marshall, “Run for the hills.” The stuff about his relationship with Cutler is great. They describe themselves exactly as they are—as an old married couple. In a June minicamp, Marshall, wired for sound, approached Cutler at practice. He put his arm around the quarterback. “Listen,” the acerbic Cutler said, “I know you’re miked up, you got your cameras here. Get the hell away from me.” “Look to your right, wave to the camera! Come on! This is your only appearance!” Marshall pleads. Cutler glances over and gives the camera a dirty look. “Hi,” Cutler said, with no enthusiasm. This show is worth an hour of your life. It airs during an interesting week, and NFL Films will get criticized some for soft-pedaling the domestic violence aspect of his life, and rightfully so. But overall, it’s still a very good tale, told in the Sabol way.
_________________ Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami
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