Brandon Marshall had a good reason to ask for his release from Jets
New York Giants wide receiver Brandon Marshall speaks to reporters during the team's organized team activities at its NFL football training facility, Thursday, May 25, 2017, in East Rutherford, N.J. Credit: AP / Julio Cortez
At 33, Brandon Marshall has played 11 seasons in the NFL and has been to the playoffs zero times, so he said he did what he felt he had to do after it appeared the Jets would not have a chance to contend this season.
“Ask for a release,” he said Thursday while appearing on the Boomer and Carton radio show. “Get out of there. You gotta understand, everybody is different. Some guys, they’re OK with just throwing a jersey on and collecting a check . . . For me, I just couldn’t be in that environment. I think everybody knows the type of personality I am at this point in my career and I wouldn’t have made it through an entire season knowing I didn’t have a chance. That’s all you want as a player — knowing you have a chance.”
For what it’s worth, the Giants new wide receiver seems plenty happy with his new home — speaking at length Thursday about how much he admired Odell Beckham, Jr. — but that doesn’t mean he’s all that thrilled about his two years with the Jets. Marshall said he took exception to how the Jets handled the releases of David Harris and Eric Decker, saying “both were wrong.”
“It was too late in free agency,” he said. “It’s bad business, but it happens . . . This is not me talking from a former Jet, I’m talking about a player. This is my player association hat on. It’s bad business.”
Marshall missed only one game in two years with the Jets, with 17 touchdowns (only three last year) and 2,290 receiving yards. He said that though they were optimistic after a 10-win season in 2015 in which they just missed the playoffs, things failed to jell the way they hoped it would last season. He pinpointed the quarterback play as a pitfall, but clarified it was a team failing, not just Ryan Fitzpatrck’s.
“We haven’t been steady there and the organization hasn’t been steady there so it’s really difficult when you have so much change in head coach and quarterbacks,” he said, adding that he liked the job coach Todd Bowles did with what he had. That said, that much turnaround means “you can’t build anything,” he said.
Marshall also walked out of a radio interview Thursday when he was asked about race.
During a segment with sports radio station WEEI in Boston, the hosts asked Marshall about comments he made in 2015 about Tom Brady, specifically when he said that white quarterbacks are treated differently.
“I’m not getting into the race card with you guys. So, if that’s what you wanna do, you guys can go there. But black guys in America get treated differently, period.”
Marshall said he would leave if they did not change the subject, and made good on his promise when pressed for further comment.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
