Why Brandon Marshall Deserves to Get Paid

Oh I can’t wait to read the angry sanctimonious comments I’m going to get on this one.

Anyhoo, I am throwing my support behind Brandon Marshall on his hold out and trade request from the Broncos. I know a lot of people hate these so called “Prima Donna” athletes who want to stop playing for their team halfway through their contracts, and I usually get tee’d off too when the do it in Baseball, Basketball or Hockey… But not in the NFL. And with B-Marsh there’s even more reason to re-do his contract.

Marshall has established himself as a top receiver in the league averaging103 Rec and 1295 Yds over the past two years. There are SIX franchises in the NFL that have ever had a 100 catch receiver. The Miami Dolphins, the Cleveland Browns, the Philadelphia Eagles, the New Orleans Saints, the Seattle Seahawks and BOTH New York teams. That is 389 seasons of never having ONE 100 catch receiver. San Diego has done it once but it wasn’t a receiver it was LT.

My point in that last paragraph was that it ain’t easy getting 100 catches.

Now that’s all good and everything but that’s not why.

Last season Marshall had one of the most incredible seasons a receiver could ever have. He caught 104 catches including an 18 catch game after his one game suspension at the beginning of the season. What made the season so amazing is that he did it with a major hip injury that the Broncos’ doctors missed.

During last years training camp Marshall talked to doctors about pain in his hip, they MRId him twice and told him nothing was wrong. The organization called him soft for not wanting to practice with the pain, so he practiced. After the Pro Bowl Marshall got a second opinion from an outside doctor and it was found out that he needed surgery.

If you can’t trust your team’s doctors, the organization is calling you “soft”, and you are one of the most underpaid players in the league how much do you really owe the organization?

If you have proven perennial Pro Bowl talent, and your team is putting you at risk you need to get your future taken care of.

The majority of people against B-Marsh will quote his numerous arrests and run ins with the law, I’ve heard some people say he’s been arrested 11 times for beating up women. This stems from a Rocky Mountain News article, which actually says “However, most were for minor incidents, some did not involve Marshall and only one, a March 27, 2007, call resulted in his being arrested”.

I’m not excusing him from being a wife beater if that is what he is, I do believe in innocent until proven guilty. But I do like to set the record straight. He has been arrested on other occasions, but a lot of charges have been dropped and he has done some plea agreements.

Others will say he’s a prima donna, a me-first guy who doesn’t care about the team. I’m not sure how this one came to be. The only incident that might show that is when he was going to celebrate a TD after the election with the black and white glove before Brandon Stokely stopped him.

I had absolutely no problem with his attempted celebration. I LOVE when athletes get involved in politics and activism. I have no idea why some people say they have no business talking about politics, social issues and other such topics. Any person has the right to show or not show who they support politically, Marshall chose to show it.

He even handled his trade request properly, he didn’t get his agent to leak it to the media, as Jay Cutler did, he walked into the owner’s office, discussed it and after Pat Bowlen wished him good luck in the future. Then after he thought Bowlen was granting his trade wish he talked to the media and since has kept pretty quiet as he is keeping away from them team.

I have been a huge Broncos fan ever since I saw my first NFL game, but I cannot support them in this battle and I hope B-Marsh finds greener pastures on some other team.

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