FanPost

Brandon Marshall can slap my sister....

Alright, well I know I am gonna catch some flack for the title of this one, especially from my sister, but hey, maybe you should have thought about that when I was twelve and you hit me in the head with a baseball bat, huh, Tracy?

As many of you male readers may know, Brandon Marshall, was recently aquired by the Chicago Bears for the upcoming season. What many of you female readers may not know, is who the heck is Brandon Marshall??? Well, I will tell you, and I will attempt to keep my excitement in check while doing so. Marshall is a three time Pro Bowl selection receiver, who has posted five straight 1,000 yard receiving seasons, including last year when he had a less than average group of quarterbacks tossing the ball in his direction all year...so for a Chicago fan...it is kinda exciting. We have not had what would be considered an elite receiver on our team since...well arguably ever. It has been a constant weakness and we fans have been aching for the Bears to address it for years...

And they did...by trading relatively little for one of the games best...

Now comes the bad news... Two days after news of the trade was announced, more news surfaced... considerably less exciting news... Brandon was being accused of punching a woman in the face outside of a nightclub in New York City at 4 o'clock in the morning, the night before the trade was made public. The details of the incident did not immediately come out, however, Brandon Marshall has a history of incidents similar to this one, so he was immediately convicted in the court of public opinion...GUILTY!...Last summer, he was stabbed in the stomach by his own wife during a domestic incident. One year before that, he was accused of domestic violence. One year before that, he was involved in an incident that ended with the slaying of a teamate. The guy has history.

Marshall, by his own doing has now become an easy target of accusation, so in a country where we are more likely to believe someone guilty until proven innocent, it has been generally assumed by most that he is guilty of this latest accusation...well except for the police that is...and so far the prosecuting attorney...and his friends...

When the story first broke, one of my friends sent me a message basically saying, well he is a good receiver, but it appears like he likes to hit women... I, JOKINGLY, text back, "Hey, he can slap my sister if he gets us to the Super Bowl..." Now obviously I didn't mean that, and was only meant to make my friend laugh, but afterward I started thinking about how Marshall is already viewed as guilty...Even by me... Yes...I think he did it...but, is that really all that bad? Again, I am not condoning violence here, but what if there were mitigating circumstances involved? Details began trickling out about the incident. Evidently, Marshall was in town, speaking at a Charity event earlier in the evening. Later, at the club, a fight began, and Marshall and his wife attempted to leave the club to avoid incident. Unfortunately, the incident continued outside, and Marshall's wife was struck and, according to sources, "severely" injured by a broken bottle. It was at this point that Marshall has been accused of punching another woman in the face, as he was leaving, and trying to get his own wife to the hospital. Other reports say, that Marshall was not intending to hit the person that he did, and still others, including Marshall's own lawyer say that there was no wrongdoing and that they are not worried about the allegation at all. Now, that last part is probably just posturing from his attorney, but lets think about this for a moment...

If someone were to hit your spouse in the head with a bottle and "severely injure" them, what would your response be? Will it matter to you if the bottle wielder is male or female? Should it matter? We also dont know yet, who hit his wife with the bottle, but lets say for a moment that it was this woman...is it ok for Marshall to have done what he is accused of then? As a police officer, you are taught that force should only be applied to the point that it is necesary to repel an attack and that appropriate use of force also includes the defense of others. If this was the case, did Marshall use appropriate force?

Now as, I said before, Marshall's own wife stabbed him in the stomach last year. Charges were eventually dropped against her, but to me that still garnishes her with the label as unstable, if not cuckoo. Maybe Marshall's wife incited everything and she really is the person to blame for this latest incident? Maybe Marshall was just trying to get her out of there before this incident turned bad? I'm sure he knew of the big trade going on...I'm sure he knew how another incident would make him look, especially at a time when he is supposed to be making a brand new start with a brand new team...or on the other hand, maybe he really is a knucklehead and will be charged soon...Who knows? Certainly not me. I was at home in my bed, a thousand miles away when it happened. I can only speculate.

The one thing I do know is that Brandon Marshall, because of his past, has become an easy target. Whether he is guilty or not, most will assume the worst, as has already been happening on all of the online message boards and facebook posts. We love to judge... Still, he SHOULD have known better. Wise people have rightly said that nothing good ever happens after midnight. Marshall should have known this, especially on the eve of such a huge announcement, and he should have known well enough to be at home at 4 am instead of dodging beer bottles on his way out of a crowded New York City nightclub. Had he been, he would not be in the position he is in now.

I am sure Brandon Marshall is guilty of punching someone in the face. I am not so sure that he is guilty of a crime, much the same as the NYPD up to this point. A crime consists of two essential elements, and both must be present for a crime to have occurred. There is the physical act of the crime, and then there is the criminal intent. If an intruder comes into your home, armed and dangerous, and you defend your home by force, have you committed a crime? No. You have committed a physical act, but without criminal intent. Much the same for Marshall, if the facts of the story that I am hearing are correct, he probably had no criminal intent...however, he will not get a fair trial in the court of public opinion. Most will hear of the act, and his sketchy past, and label him a woman beater, or a thug, or a derelict and a danger to society....Me, I kind of just feel like he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, which again, IS his fault.

In any case, however this turns out, He is a Chicago Bear, and I am excited about that. I do not look at most sports figures these days as role models, nor should we. Most of them are not worth it and some object to the notion entirely. We are our children's role models, and that is a job I take very seriously. As for Brandon Marshall, whether he is suspended by the league or not for this incident, he will be on the field at some point for the Bears catching passes from Jay Cutler, hopefully leading our offense into the end zone again and again, and quite possibly leading my beloved Bears to the Super Bowl...and I gotta tell you Tracy, if that happens, I may stay true to my word... Hey, that bat hurt!!! I do have some head gear I will let ya borrow though...suck it up...its for the team!

This Fanpost was written by a Windy City Gridiron member and does not necessarily reflect the ideas or opinions of its staff or community.