Just after Brandon Marshall was traded from the Dolphins to the Bears in March, news surfaced that he was accused of punching a woman in the face during an incident at a nightclub in New York.
That led to fear from Brian Urlacher that Marshall would be suspended, even as Marshall insisted that he did nothing wrong and nothing worthy of getting suspended. We haven’t head anything from the league office about that yet, but it does look like Marshall will wriggle free of the long arm of the law.
Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that the New York Police Department will likely wrap up their investigation into the fracas without charging Marshall with any crime. Per Schefter, police have struggled to find any evidence of wrongdoing by Marshall that backs up the calls from Christin Myles, the alleged victim, that he be held criminally responsible.
As Ben Roethlisberger will attest, avoiding criminal charges doesn’t guarantee that Marshall won’t get suspended. The league can use Marshall’s history and their own investigation as rationale for a suspension under the personal conduct policy. Avoiding charges would be a positive for Marshall, but it doesn’t take him all the way out of the woods.