ESPN’s recent Outside The Lines report focusing on the allegations of Rasheedah Watley against Broncos receiver Brandon Marshall portrayed Watley as the victim and Marshall as the villain.
But there was more to the story that wasn’t, in our view, sufficiently presented by ESPN.
Marshall’s camp submitted documents to ESPN that seem to undermine dramatically Watley’s credibility.
And Marshall referred indirectly to the effort to derail the story during his live interview with Bob Ley.
“I think we have a lot of paperwork, we sent it over to you guys,” Marshall said. “Sworn testimony from Rasheedah Watley. It’s evidence that, you know, this is clearly about money.”
In fairness to ESPN, the report made reference to a key letter from Watley to Commissioner Roger Goodell, in which Watley states that Marshall never harmed her. But ESPN adroitly pooh-poohed the letter, quoting no portion of it and claiming that she later recanted when meeting with NFL Security.
Here’s what the letter, dated July 29, 2008, had to say: “My name is Rasheedah Watley, I am the ex girlfriend of Brandon Marshall. I read in the newspapers that he is in trouble with the league because of me. I will let you know that he never hurt me or hit me, I was pressured by my family to make up certain things [to] get money. I was told to say that Brandon hit me and hurt me so that I could get him to pay to keep me quiet. I want you to know he never did.”
Here’s how ESPN described the letter, without reading any of it on the air: “Watley herself admits she sent the NFL mixed signals. After pressing charges against Marshall in Atlanta, she says at Marshall’s request, she sent a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, denying Marshall has ever abused her. Watley told Outside The Lines she later recanted during a meeting with NFL Security, saying then that the abuse did in fact happen.”
(ESPN claims the NFL was asked to confirm that Watley recanted the letter while meeting with NFL Security, and that the league declined to comment. NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told us that he has no record of this specific request being made.)
So why didn’t ESPN quote from the letter, or at least mention the suggestion that Watley’s family was pushing her to make allegations against Marshall in order to cash in?
“The letter was a single paragraph,” ESPN spokesman Bill Hofheimer told us. “We paraphrased it. We also obtained the letter at the 11th hour, so paraphrasing was the cleanest way to report it at that point.”
Even though reasonable minds might differ as to the “cleanest” procedure for presenting a one-paragraph letter (our position would be that the cleanest way to present a one-paragraph letter is to, you know, read it), we doubt that anyone would seriously dispute that the fairest approach would have been to read . . . the . . . letter.
We’ve also seen communications from Watley’s lawyers, demanding payment of $500,000 in 2006 and $100,000 in 2007. Neither of these documents received the kind of attention they merited in the segment.
Moreover, the ESPN report contained no mention of evidence suggesting that Watley potentially was the aggressor in conflicts between Watley and Marshall, or that she has admitted in counseling sessions that she reacts to stressful situations at times with violence.
Indeed, we’ve seen portions of sworn testimony in which she admits to biting Marshall on the shoulder and poking him in the eye.
“I just remember Brandon picking me up and I was swinging my arms,” she said under oath. “I was biting, I was kicking, I was scratching, I was screaming.”
And as a result of that incident, she acknowledged that he didn’t retaliate. Instead, Marshall put her down and went to the bathroom to inspect the injuries she had inflicted on him.
So why was this information not included? The Broncos, we’re told, are concerned that ESPN had preconceived notions regarding Marshall’s guilt.
And we can understand why that would happen, especially with Watley and her parents telling passionate stories of persistent, one-sided abuse. But the goal should have been to obtain and to present both sides of the story.
In this case, we think ESPN failed.
In our view, it’s even more important to be fair when discussing issues of NFL player misconduct. Given the fact that so many of them get in trouble, they are targets for false allegations. Though, in this case, it’s possible that Marshall did some things he shouldn’t have done, ESPN should have done more, in our opinion, to present to its audience the evidence that undermines the claims being made against him.
ESPN's Brandon Marshall Story Omitted Key Facts
Posted by Mike Florio on June 6, 2009, 7:53 AM EST
24 Responses to “ESPN's Brandon Marshall Story Omitted Key Facts”
I have never understood why famous people put themselves in these situations. They know people will set them up in order to get money from them. Yet, they still involve themselves with these people, not just once but repeatedly.
If someone is a golddigger and/or batguano crazy, stay away.
Nothing in the story passed the smell test as I watched. Too many holes and far more questions than answers.
For all the BMarsh bashers and haters who were being his Judge, Jury and executioners from earlier reports you know who you are. Innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Good job Floria for digging up and reporting this evidence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD9L_eZFfrM
champagne is still a dolt.
Mike, do you ever send what you’ve written to the person or organization you’ve condemned when you do pieces like this? I know you talk to spokespersons and representatives to get your information, but it must be tempting on occasion to show the involved parties how transparent their motives and carelessness can be.
WOW, I’m shocked. Florio’s NOT bashing Marshall or the Broncos.
It’s nice to see you step up and point out the facts of the matter that ESPN clearly chose to ignore.
I agree.
I don’t think Marshall is totally innocent here, but this smelled like a money grab and I said so as soon as I saw the broadcast. How could ESPN quickly put up the emails asking for money and not ask Whatley about it at all? Who sits on TV crying about how they are a battered girlfriend knowing that they just asked for money to make this all go away.
Also, I will never condone it, but some women can be serious aggressors in arguments, putting thier hands all over their boyfriends all but daring them to touch them. It puts men, who are basically wired to not let people do that to them, in a situation when you have to have almost superhuman self control sometimes…I’ve seen couples leave clubs where the girl is pushing and digging their finger into the guys head while calling him all kinds of names and daring him to hit her and such…and the guy isn’t saying anything really…trying to walk away. It’s crazy.
Hey Florio, was the Palm Pre released today?
As I watched that report I kept saying, “Wow, these parents are fool of themselves.”
He should sue them.
Mike – That is an outstanding and honest analysis of this situation. In this instance, you have illustrated both sides of the story concerning an issue. I often get frustrated in the sports media, including this site, when opinion and analysis is driven by people who have already made up their minds about what happened. I think ESPN clearly did this with the Marshall story.
Bravo for being fair and presenting all the evidence in this case from both sides. Now the readers can take this into account and draw their own conclusions about what really happened.
Hey Florio, I would love to see you start up a new site dedicated to being sort of a watchdog group for stuff like this. That’s not to take away from this being football related and all, it just seems that inevitably when you do post these stories, all the idiots swoon in with their predictable “I wannateded to reed da footballz not dis stoopid stuff, durrrr you wroted a book!” You know, just a for instance.
But I personally love reading the stories where you hold these writers to the fire and while I know you’re: A. already busy enough and B. don’t care much about the other sports and C. I have no idea how many people like me would read it, I’m just saying it would be cool…
“LiveNBreath Football says:
June 6th, 2009 at 8:02 am
I have never understood why famous people put themselves in these situations. They know people will set them up in order to get money from them. Yet, they still involve themselves with these people, not just once but repeatedly.
If someone is a golddigger and/or batguano crazy, stay away. ”
They met in high school, how was Marshall to know that she would turn into a golddigger once he came into some serious money? I have never understood why people assume that you can predict this kind of behaviour in your high school sweetheart.
Kudos to PFT for being the first to try to give Marshall a fair accounting. While the Denver papers at least made the questionable documents available by PDF file, it is rare that those documents are incorporated into any story judging Marshall at the local or national level. Marshall has surely made his share of mistakes, but he is hardly the raving and incorrigable menace his national reputation suggests.
You tellin’ me ESPN (or any media in fact) have preconceived notions coming into a story?!?!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SAY IT AIN’T SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!
Excellent post Florio.
Now if we could only get the “real” media to present ALL sides of ALL stories….. maybe we wouldn’t allow our govern-ment to rob us of our hard EARNED money to maim and kill poor people in the eastern hemisphere…….
ahhhhhhh back to sleep.
When I saw her mother on tv actually blame the NFL more than she blamed Marshall, that’s when it all started making sense. This story fits her mindset.
the shame of this is the fact that news has been relegated to the to the secondary role it was meant to be.it seems news is based on entertainment value now.getting ratings are paramount to reaching for the truth,after all,ratings mean money..bottom line.
Sorry Mike, this is the Media not a Courtroom. Innocence or guilt lies in the presentation of the material. There are no cross examinations. Anything said may or may not be taken out of context and “Edited” because of “Time Restraints”. The bigger question is what will draw more ratings, a show about a couple who took turns being an instigator and beat on each other, or the story of a big bad football player beating on a defenseless young woman. Every good story has a good guy and a bad guy. If it was a story about two bad guys with no good guy, it would be very difficult to arouse sympathy. And no one wants to hear a story about two good guys and no bad guy because there is no excitement in that.
Wow, when did Fox News buy ESPN? Sounds like the type of reporting they’d do.
The epitome of what makes you head and shoulder’s above the rest, Florio.
Seems to me these are some money grubbin bitches after Marshall’s money. The fact that he’s had other off-the-field issues doesn’t look good for his case, either.
Good job, Mike. These facts have been known in Denver for quite a while, but the four-letter network and others have repeatedly, and at this point it appears purposefully, chosen to not report them. This is but the latest, most blatant example.
“But the goal should have been to obtain and to present both sides of the story.”
Only if the assumption is that they are interested in the FACTS of the story, rather than the sensationalistic nonsense. The four-letter network is ONLY, and always, about infotainment. Facts, schmacts- we’re spinnin’ yarns here!