Bears receiver Brandon Marshall, who years ago was accused by a former girlfriend of abusing her, spoke out Thursday about the domestic violence issues that continue to plague the NFL and urged people not to rush to judgment before they hear both sides of a story.
The comments from Marshall, who spoke at the team's facility, come after attorney Gloria Allred on Wednesday said that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell ignored previous complaints lodged against Marshall.
"My view on the NFL and this current climate we're in, I think it's a shame," Marshall said. "But I do love and respect what we're doing because the NFL, we all know has the ability to transform lives, transform communities. We have influence to really shape and mold a culture. So these issues, you know, whether we're wearing lime green on the field, pink, orange, whatever, I think that is sweet. I love it, because of the amount of awareness we have and the amount of influence can really dictate a lot.
"But what I am disgusted over and I really believe it's not an issue of domestic violence or child abuse or drunken driving, it's really an issue of the condition of our hearts as people ... the way we treat one another ... it doesn't matter if the man's the aggressor or the woman's the aggressor or we're disciplining our kids in anger or disciplining our kids in love ... it's the condition of our hearts."
Marshall was accused of abuse by former girlfriend Rasheeda Watley in 2006. He was a member of the Denver Broncos at the time. He was charged with domestic violence in 2007, but the case was dismissed after he completed anger management classes.
In 2008, the NFL suspended Marshall for three games for violating the league's personal conduct policy. That suspension later was reduced to one game.
"Because of my story and my experience and only using my story, we have to let the process play itself out, whether the process is a day or the process is a month," Marshall said Thursday, "and we have gathered all the facts before we can go playing judge and jury, and that's the only issue that I have with all these changes and even the changes I think we should make. We just have to make sure we're doing our due diligence and really looking at things from a neutral standpoint."
Earlier this week, ESPN aired an updated "E:60" piece, originally produced in 2012, detailing Marshall's legal issues. On Thursday, Marshall criticized the network for trying to "exploit his story" and said he deserved an apology because the story was not balanced and did not tell the story he was told it would tell.
An ESPN spokesperson responded: "We set out to produce a fair and balanced piece that accurately portrayed the story of a player who changed his life through persistent dedication. That's exactly what we did with this piece and we stand by our reporting. Additionally, we often update previously aired features when the topic is relevant."