Brandon Marshall is honest about his transgressions, but he has strong opinions about how they should be viewed by others.
The Chicago Bears wide receiver was furious about how his history of domestic violence and his struggles with borderline personality disorder were portrayed in ESPN’s “E:60” documentary about him. He expressed those feelings candidly at a 40-minute news conference Thursday.
“I refuse to sit back and continue to let ESPN or any outlet exploit my story because they don’t know my story,” Marshall said per the Bears’ Twitter account. “I think that ESPN owes my wife and I apology. They had access to all of this (material he distributed to media).”
That material that he passed out was 12 pages of court testimony and documents from his past domestic violence cases, which Marshall used to show that recent accusations that he assaulted ex-girlfriend in 2007 were resolved. Included was a letter from the ex-girlfriend to commissioner Roger Goodell, in which she wrote she was pressured to make up the story in order to receive money in a settlement.
Marshall pointed to this as his reasoning for why he believes NFL players should receive due process before they’re punished by the league.
“We need to get all the details before we can play judge or jury because there are two sides to every story,” Marshall said.
“Domestic violence is wrong. I believe there should be consequences. I believe in that,” he added. “I didn’t say I believe in the indefinite ban. I believe in second chances. I just want the process to play itself out.”
But Marshall also took a step back from his personal affairs and his opinions to address the bigger issues.
“(Domestic violence) is not a problem in the NFL,” Marshall said per The Chicago Tribune’s David Haugh. “It’s an epidemic in our world. It’s not the NFL’s job to raise men. This is a great opportunity right now, with everything the NFL is going through, to really raise awareness on these issues.”
