Didn't happen in Chicago or New York. He's been considered a locker room leader since he started receiving treatment for BPD. He called out the Chicago locker room as a leader would when they were losing left and right and showing no fight; per Jared Allen and Matt Forte, people respected him. He was traded to the Jets because he was getting older, dealing with injuries, had an expensive contract, and the Bears had a shiny new WR1 whose contract is up this year.
Actually, Forte went on the radio and said the problem was that Marshall was so wrapped up in holding Cutler 'accountable' while never holding himself accountable. So no, I don't buy your claim that Marshall had all of this imaginary locker room support when all evidence points to the contrary.
The fact is that 'it' absolutely did happen in Chicago. It hasn't happened in NY
yet because he's only been there a year. Notice that I said I'd love to have him for a year. But I absolutely guarantee that 2 years from today the Jets will have either ditched him or will be actively looking to trade him. When it's happened three times already, it's a trend.
What background? He has a serious mental illness, which is not multiple personality disorder, and has become a bastion of maturity and a locker room leader since he began receiving treatment for it.
I know this part wasn't directed at me, but FWIW my mom has BPD too, so I'm
very familiar with it. Nobody's glossing over it or ignoring it. But guess what, that doesn't give him a free pass on accountability for his actions. Mental disorders don't mean you get to be a destructive influence and an overall negative at your place of employment. That's not the case anywhere, and it's
especially not the case in the NFL.
You say he was a "bastion of maturity and a locker room leader" in Chicago, but they
couldn't wait to get rid of him. If any of what you're claiming was true, he's exactly the kind of guy that the team would want to keep around in the midst of a regime change, especially given his obvious talent and modest cap savings from ditching him. So why, exactly, do you think they were so eager to get rid of him? Clearly because he was the problem there, just like he was the problem everywhere else he's ever played. He's alienated the locker room and left his team desperate to get rid of him
everywhere he's ever been.
And I distinctly remember that his defenders when he shot his way out of Denver and Miami were saying "but Cutler loves him, so there must be more to the story." Now those same people are claiming that Cutler was the problem all along, since Marshall couldn't even make it work with his biggest cheerleader and alleged best friend in the NFL for more than a couple years. You can only make excuses for people for so long: if every situation is the wrong situation, maybe the situation isn't the problem. Maybe the person is.
Whenever Brandon Marshall comes up, a lot of Patriots fans reveal how vicious they are in being unwilling to acknowledge that football players are real people, some of whom have mental illnesses, and accept that a person can change when they seek and receive treatment for those illnesses.
That's a nice sentiment, but what evidence do you have that he's genuinely changed? Since it became public knowledge that he was seeking treatment, the Bears traded him for a
7th round pick. Sure, Marshall says that Cutler was the problem, but meanwhile Matt Forte said that Marshall was the problem, and it's pretty clear who the Bears organization thought was at fault. For what possible reason should anyone believe your account of things over
everyone else who was actually there and in a position to know?
EDIT: on reviewing this, I think it reads a little too harsh to Marshall. One of the hallmarks of BPD sufferers, and part of what makes it so hard to treat, is that as part of the disorder they'll almost never admit that there's anything wrong with them that requires treating. When I learned that he had gone public with his struggles and was being treated, that impressed the hell out of me. I know a fair amount about BPD, given that it exists in my family and I did a fair amount of research to try to figure out how to conduct a functional relationship with someone who has it. What was stressed over and over again is that the first and hardest hurdle for its sufferers is admitting that they have it to begin with. Most never do, so just taking that step is a significant testament to him.
Having said that, even among sufferers who do get treatment, what we've seen from Marshall over the last year or two is commonplace. The general consensus seems to be that BPD arises from childhood abuse and abandonment, so it's no surprise that one of the defining traits of a BPD sufferer is intense abandonment issues. One of the ways that they handle that is by prematurely sabotaging relationships as a means of striking before they can be abandoned. It ends up making their fears a self-fulfilling prophecy and creates a negative feedback loop that just makes them more distrustful and suspicious of everyone around them, and in many cases further entrenches their weird, borderline delusional belief that
everyone else is the problem. And yeah, even among sufferers who have actively sought treatment, it still shakes out that way a lot of the time, because all it takes is a particularly negative and/or stressful situation for many of them to revert back to believing they weren't the problem after all, and the world really is out to get them. I've seen it happen, and I've discussed it with professionals who say that's unfortunately how it tends to go.
So to be sure, I think it was very courageous of Marshall to acknowledge that he has BPD and seek treatment. That took a lot of courage, self-awareness, and introspection on his part, and in standing up as he did he made himself a legitimate role model to a lot of people who are suffering from his same condition. But having said that,
why someone is a locker room cancer is IMO a secondary concern to the simple fact that they
are a cancer. And Marshall is one. I'd be willing to bet that a lot of the more notorious locker room cancers in the NFL (looking at you, TO) have actually had the same disorder, but it went either undiagnosed or they stayed private with it. I have sympathy for their struggle, but that doesn't mean I want them to be around long enough to wreck the Pats' chemistry.
I respect how hard someone like Marcus Cannon worked to overcome cancer and make it to the NFL, but that doesn't mean I want him protecting Brady's blindside. Likewise, I respect what Brandon Marshall has done to try to work through his BPD and stay in the NFL, but that doesn't mean I want him in the Pats' locker room in a position to mess up their chemistry.
