Even after all he's done this season to finally make a name for himself, Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall still dreads the airport.
Halfway through his third season in the NFL, Marshall can only laugh and shake his head when fans still confuse him with the "other" Brandon Marshall, the Bears' Pro Bowl wideout and occasional diva who earns more money in a week than the Broncos' leading tackler will make ($495,000) all season.
In Week 1 against the Colts, while subbing for injured starter Danny Trevathan, Marshall played 80 snaps, relayed the defensive calls on the field, led Denver with nine tackles, saved a touchdown on a kickoff return and stuffed Andrew Luck on fourth-and-goal.
The next day, waiting for him back at his locker in the Broncos' practice facility was, he thought, his first official piece of fan mail. Instead, the package was full of football cards featuring the Bears' receiver with a note asking him to sign the cards and kindly mail them back to Iowa.
"I was like, 'Man, why would you send pictures of a Chicago Bear to the Denver Broncos' office,'" Marshall said. "That's just crazy."
Marshall and his teammates got a pretty good chuckle out of that one. Just like this summer when employees at a club in Vegas, certain they had hired a famous NFL player, refused to believe he was Brandon Marshall even after he pulled out his NFLPA ID card and Googled himself on the spot.
Even as Marshall has made the incredible leap from fringe player to the leading tackler on the game's No. 1 rushing defense, his Twitter page still gets so many messages intended for the other guy -- 700 wrongly addressed mentions came his way after the Bears played the Jets on "Monday Night Football" -- that Marshall was forced to temporarily turn his avatar into a PSA. There used to be an arrow pointing to his face next to the words: Not Bears Brandon Marshall.
Doppelgangers and mistaken identity are nothing new in sports, of course. There have been two Kareem Abdul-Jabbars, one an NBA legend, the other (Karim) an NFL running back. There are two Jimmy Johnsons (one is Jimmie); two Will Smiths; two Carlos Santanas; two Adrian Petersons; three Ricky Williamses; two Robert Griffins; three Roy Williamses and on and on. There's even three Dave Flemings (one is Flemming), as if one weren't more than enough.
But as Marshall and I both know, when you're the "other" guy in these scenarios, sometimes life can feel a little like you're in the middle of that old Michael Jordan credit card commercial.
"It's like people are disappointed when they hear you're not that guy," Marshall said. "Like in that commercial, people get excited because they think they're about to meet MJ and then you get the 'awww' -- the disappointed 'awww.' I get the disappointed awww, too. A lot."
So do I. And I know it sounds bizarre, but when people seem so genuinely happy to share with me how much they enjoyed my recent college football broadcast, I have the hardest time telling them it was actually the other, younger, smarter, more famous Dave Flemming. So, sometimes, well, I just don't. I don't lie-lie. But I'll say something like, "That's very kind, I'm glad you enjoyed it."
"Airports are the worst," Marshall confessed. "You give the security guy your ID and the guy sits up and goes, 'Oh, hey, you're not the Brandon Marshall are you?' I don't say, 'Hey man, I play for the Broncos,' or anything like that. I just go 'No, no, I'm not.' But in the back of my mind, my time is coming. I want to become the Brandon Marshall instead of the other Brandon Marshall."
Brandon Marshall
#54 LB
Denver Broncos
2014 STATS
- Tot75
Solo58
Ast17
FF1
Sack1.0
- Int0
He's well on his way.
The Bears seem on the verge of imploding at any minute, and Marshall, the receiver, is headed for the lowest statistical output since his rookie season in 2006. Meanwhile, the Broncos are in the hunt for another No. 1 playoff seed, and Marshall, the linebacker, has gone from getting cut by the worst team in the league (Jacksonville) to being a strong Pro Bowl candidate in the past 14 months.
Besides, helping the Broncos get back to the Super Bowl and basking in the worldwide audience for two weeks is probably a better marketing strategy than my first two suggestions: stitching his middle initial M (for Markeith) to the back of his jersey or going the Demi Moore route and asking everyone to pronounce his first name Bran-DON.
"It won't ever fully stop, but the best I can hope for would be for people to start recognizing that there's actually two of us," he said. "But even that would be an amazing, crazy turn of events and proof of how quickly things can change in life and how, in such a short amount of time, the tables can turn."
How he's handled being the other guy tells you everything you need to know about Marshall and why he's having such a monster season. His refreshing, relaxed and self-deprecating approach to this bizarre identity crisis is a byproduct of the same thing that has led to his stunning play on the field: a level of humility and perspective rare for a player his age. This Marshall knows that in the grand scheme of things, having angry fantasy football dorks tweeting at him to get back on the field and catch more touchdowns is, well, just not that big of a deal.
"There's just no need to get upset about it," he said. "So I like to have fun with it. It's something we can all have a laugh with, ya know?"
(OK, but please, fortheloveofgod, stop asking him if Jay Cutler is going to be the NFL MVP. The other guy predicted that.)
Marshall grew up in Las Vegas. His parents separated when he was 9. When his father turned violent during the split, Barbara Marshall and her boys, Brandon and older brother Marcus, were forced to seek protection in a shelter for 26 days. Marshall's father went to prison as Marshall went on to pick up the pieces of his life and eventually land a scholarship at Nevada, where he played well enough that he was selected in the fifth round by the Jaguars in the 2012 draft. But he spent most of his time in Jacksonville jerked back and forth between the active roster and the practice squad. Late in 2012, the Jags cut him twice in the same week.
"I had dark days in Jacksonville, when I questioned myself a lot, and I just didn't know how this was ever gonna all work out," Marshall said.
During the Jaguars' 41-3 blowout loss to the Bears in 2012, the famous Brandon Marshall pointed at the rookie Brandon Marshall and tugged on his jersey as if to say, "Let's exchange jerseys after the game." But they missed each other in the confusion afterward and never connected. It was a metaphor for his lost rookie season.
"I wondered, 'Am I even cut out for this?' And then, Denver called," he said. "I got cut three times by one of the worst teams, and now I'm the leading tackler on one of the best teams. That just doesn't happen. Not in this league."
Away from the dysfunction in Jacksonville, Marshall was actually happier on the Broncos' practice squad than he was on the active roster for the Jaguars. And it showed. Late last season, while working as the leader of the Broncos' scout team defense, Marshall got so good at matching wits with Peyton Manning (whom my wife often mistakes for either Sean Payton or Walter Payton) that, at times, he yelled out the offense's play call just before they ran it.
"I just needed a real place and real team to work with me," Marshall said. "Denver gave me that shot."
Even as the Broncos went on their run to the Super Bowl, players bombarded coach John Fox with requests to marshal Marshall.
"Our offensive players loved him," Fox told reporters earlier this season. "He was running around on the practice squad last year and I finally said to the guys, 'Hey, we can't block this dude.' He's on the scout team wrecking our offense."
It's been more of the same this year, just aimed at the opposition, finally. After taking over for Trevathan, Marshall started his career with 30 tackles, two passes defensed, a sack and a forced fumble in his first three games. Overeager young linebackers are constantly being tricked, with misdirection or play-action, into taking one wrong step that instantly removes them from the play. But Marshall is so dialed in mentally to the Broncos' scheme -- and the opponent's -- that he actually turns the tables the other way, reading formations and personnel groupings in order to stay a step or two ahead of the offense.
Just like he did with the Luck QB sneak. Since then, Marshall has registered double-digit tackles in half the Broncos' games, including last week's career-high 13 in a win at Oakland. If Manning gets another ring this year, he'll have Marshall and his defense to thank for preventing the Broncos from getting physically manhandled again on the game's biggest stage.
Not bad for a guy who sends out a Bible verse on Twitter and still gets the reply: "And the Lord urges thee to get some freaking fantasy points bro." But with every tackle and every Broncos win, Marshall can sense it. Things are changing.
"I'm starting to separate a little. I'm starting to build my own identity," he said. "People used to meet me and go 'You're not the real Brandon Marshall.' But I'm a good player as well and I plan on taking the league by storm and then I'll finally have a name for myself."
So, please, before you send out that tweet or that autograph request or that disappointed "awww" at the airport, remember how to identify the real Brandon Marshall. It's easy: He's the star in the blue and orange uniform.