Chicago Bears wide receiver Brandon Marshall has some serious baggage. He’s had several brushes with the law, he’s been accused of domestic violence and he suffers from borderline personality disorder. But by all indications, Marshall has turned his life around. He’s kept out of trouble and is now heavily involved in charity while acting as a champion for mental health awareness.
The second part of that paragraph is what Marshall expected would be focused on when ESPN produced an E:60 profile on him, which aired Tuesday evening. Unsurprisingly, though, the Lisa Salters piece spent more discussing Marshall’s checkered past than the 30-year-old would have preferred.
Queue the Twitter tirade:
@E60 is running a piece on me tonight that they lied to me about. It was suppose to be a story on a camp. They followed me around 2 years
— BEAST (@BMarshall) September 16, 2014
Ago and at the end put a camera in my face to talk about it and asked nothing admit the camp or the community weekend. I'm disappointed
— BEAST (@BMarshall) September 16, 2014
That @espn and @lisasalters continues to try and tell my story in @espn's words.
— BEAST (@BMarshall) September 16, 2014
Better yet I'm pissed off – beyond disappointed. This is the second time @espn did this.
— BEAST (@BMarshall) September 16, 2014
I trust Espn to tell my story & they lied to me once again to get my interview .Media exploits & tells thier own stories. Disappoints again
— BEAST (@BMarshall) September 16, 2014
Well I guess I probably should use my coping skills now. Thanks @espn
— BEAST (@BMarshall) September 16, 2014
The timing of a piece that puts the spotlight on Marshall’s history of domestic violence allegations and arrests isn’t ideal for him, considering that the league is already embroiled in a domestic violence-related fiasco following incidents involving stars Greg Hardy, Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson.
But there’s no evidence ESPN pushed this piece now in light of the current debacle, and even if that were the case, it wouldn’t necessarily be a journalistic faux pas to do so. Timely is timely.
The reality is that ESPN is under no obligation to consult with or inform Marshall on their angle. He claims he was lied to about the premise of the story, which would of course be problematic, but it does seem as though, instead, he’s complaining that he was misled regarding the original reason for the interview and footage that the story revolves around.
The moment ESPN’s correspondent(s) asked him nothing or very little about the camp in question, Marshall had to know that was no longer going to be the focus of the piece. And angles change, so ESPN doesn’t have to explain itself here. Maybe their intent was to spend more time on the camp, but in the production process that angle became less appealing.
Regardless, if ESPN only gained an interview with Marshall by leading him to believe the story would have a completely different focus, they were using a tactic that is extremely popular in the world of media, sports or otherwise. It’s not cool, but Marshall had to know that if they were telling his story, simply placing the focus on a camp for kids would be a little disingenuous to viewers.
This is a he said/she said that might not have a black-and-white explanation, but the majority of outsiders will blame the media simply because that’s the popular thing to do. It’ll be interesting to see if the same thing happens when Marshall is featured on “A Football Life” this Friday on NFL Network.
