Brandon Marshall doesn't 'want my QB dancing' (but likes Cam Newton)
Brandon Marshall says he doesn't want his quarterback dancing but wants to "commend" Cam
By
Will Brinson
•
3 min read
It wouldn’t be the week before Super Bowl week without a storyline already becoming excessive. In this case it’s the debate about Cam Newton, who was thrust into the limelight further after he posited that he’s perceived differently as an African-American quarterback because people aren’t used to it.
He’s not wrong! But there’s a whole lot of nuance to the subject matter at hand. Jets receiver Brandon Marshall actually seemed to grasp it and had an interesting take on the Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore recently. Marshall believes Cam -- and the rest of the younger generation of football players -- are “disrespectful” and “disruptive” only in a good way.
“I don’t want my quarterback dancing. I want my quarterback to get in the huddle and lead us,” Marshall said. “This is the new generation. This is what they’re doing next: they’re disruptive, they’re disrespectful and they don’t give a damn about anyone. And I kind of like it! I kind of like it!
“Well you gotta look at it. Odell Beckham, Jr., and then you have Cam Newton who I think is leading the way. Go back to when he was a rookie and he said I want to be an icon -- if you want to be an icon you can’t stay in the box, you’ve got to get out of a box and be disruptive.”
Marshall also noted Cam’s done plenty to earn a little bit of freedom in how he acts on the field. This isn’t Johnny Manziel we’re talking about here.
“He’s 15-1, he’s the MVP. He’s going to be the sixth African-American leading his team to the Super Bowl,” Marshall added. “I’m all for it. This is the entertaining business. The NFL made $10 billion last year. Why? It’s entertaining.”
Here’s where Marshall’s talk got interesting. He noted the business side of things caused a different athlete than the one we saw in the 1970’s, when athletes spoke out.
“You know what? First of all I want to say this -- I commend him because back in the day our athletes and entertainers used to be civil rights leaders. They used to speak up. But now the business has taken over,” Marshall said. “You have these brands -- Under Armour, Nike, Beats by Dre and that yogurt he endorsed. They come in and say, ‘Be a good boy, shut your mouth and collect your check.’”
And then Marshall, with a sly nod to the number of different teams he’s played on, noted how we do put quarterbacks in “a box.”
“I am one of those guys if I have an opinion I’m going to say it … and I guess that’s why I’m on my fourth team!” Marshall said. “But when you look at it, it’s a generational thing and I just stick to that. I don’t think it’s racial. I just think there’s a box we put our quarterbacks in and we say this is how you’re supposed to be. This is how Peyton Manning did it, this is how Joe Montana did it, Tom Brady, so you do it the same way.”
The entire clip is entertaining — Wilmore and Marshall go back and forth about the Seahawks (and Wilmore points out the Broncos got to the Super Bowl after Marshall played there — um, OUCH) and Jets, with Marshall half-heartedly saying the Jets are better than the Panthers.
