Brandon Marshall Vents In Media Presser

Today was media day for the Chicago Bears. Usually, a player or coach speaks for about ten minutes at the podium. Brandon Marshall spoke for 38 minutes and 28 seconds.

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Marshall spoke on a wide variety of issues, including his environment growing up, ESPN, and some old allegations against him.

As we reported yesterday, Gloria Allred, an attorney for Marshall’s ex-girlfriend, Rasheedah Watley, and Watley’s father held a press conference blasting Roger Goodell’s handling of Marshall’s alleged punching of Watley.

Here are the details of Marshall’s presser (via chicagobears.com)

On his environment growing up:

“I grew up in a house, better yet, an environment where it was volatile. There was domestic violence. My mother, my mother, was not only physically abused, mentally abused, but she was also sexually assaulted…I saw a lot of pain in my momma’s eyes. I didn’t know what that was, I just thought she was a mean person at times.”

Marshall went on to talk about how his mother finally called him before a game at Tennessee and asked for help. He had her come to the game, and afterward he took her to the Betty Ford Clinic. They just recently celebrated her 50th birthday and two years of being sober.

“We have to let the process play itself out. Whether the process is a day or the process is a month, we have to gather all the facts before we can play judge and jury.” -Brandon Marshall

On his thoughts of the changes to NFL policies:

“We have to let the process play itself out. Whether the process is a day or the process is a month, we have to gather all the facts before we can play judge and jury. And that’s the only issue that I have with these changes. We just have to make sure we are doing our due diligence and looking at things from a neutral standpoint.”

Marshall stated that he supports some of the changes, but without gathering all of the facts before acting, it could cause devastation.

On his disgust with ESPN:

“This is really tough for me. In situations like this (referring to allegations against him), you’re not gonna hear people defend themselves. If you get defensive, if you speak your mind, you’re gonna be judged and make yourself look even worse. And for six or seven years I’ve sat back and accepted everything that I’ve done, everything that I’ve been a part of.

“I’ve listened to representatives say ‘Listen, you can’t win this one,’ and you can’t. But I refuse to sit back and continue to let ESPN or any other outlet to exploit my story, because they don’t know my story.

“ESPN really does know my story because they were sent packets with both sides of it (Watley’s side and Marshall’s side). And that’s what’s upsetting, when someone can go in my living room and look me and my wife in the eye and say ‘Look, this story is about what you’re doing today. They use our story to sell magazines or to get better ratings. It’s time to stop.”

He expounded on what ESPN did to him.

“If ESPN would’ve read this stuff (documents explaining both sides), or showed this stuff, you know, it would’ve showed a totally different story (than what the E:60 segment showed). But what ended up happening was you saw just one side. I think ESPN owes my wife and I an apology, cause it’s the third time they did it.”

On the details of the allegations made by Watley:

About the pictures that they showed on ESPN, depicting a black eye, where a judge and a bailiff talk about how those were false. And this is unpopular what I’m doing. You know, there’s gonna be lots of people criticizing me, but it’s been six, seven years and I haven’t said anything.

“I thought that giving this to the network, ESPN, you know, they would tell the right story, just to show my side. There’s a letter from the Watleys, Miss Rasheedah Watley, to the Commissioner (Goodell) in 2008, where she states ‘I was pressured to do this for money. This stuff never happened,’ which isn’t all true because it was a volatile relationship. We argued every single day. We treated each other bad. We had no business being in a relationship.”

He went on to quote from a couples therapy counselor where it said even their therapy sessions were volatile and on occasion she would hit Marshall during the therapy session.

On the allegation that Goodell did not do enough in his case, Marshall talked about how Goodell sent executives twice to the Watleys to talk about what happened, and to give Rasheedah Watley her side of the story.

Marshall said he believes in the new policy. He agrees with the six-game suspension and the indefinite ban as long as a proper process is followed. He acknowledged also that it could have been him facing those punishments.

Marshall presented copies to the media of all the document he spoke about, including demand letters of $500,000 and $100,000 from the Watleys.

It was an interesting media presser for Marshall, to say the least. After taking some lumps over the years, he finally vented and gave his side of the story that is currently going around.