Denver linebacker Brandon Marshall lost a pair of endorsements after electing to take a knee during the national anthem prior to last Thursday’s regular season opener between the Broncos and Carolina Panthers.
Now he’s getting another endorsement opportunity and isn’t sweating the change.
After losing CenturyLink and Air Academy Credit Union as paid endorsements, entertainment mogul Russell Simmons has reached out to Marshall to get him to endorse “RushCard,” which is a prepaid Visa card.
“I spoke with Russell Simmons,” Marshall said in quotes distributed by the Broncos. “They’re endorsing me, The Rush Card and he said he was going to speak with me today. I spoke with him the last two days. He’s going to talk to me today about the parameters of the deal, what it comes with. I lost two, but I gain one.”
Marshall said he knew he could face repercussions from sponsors for taking a knee and was ready for those consequences. While he was still a bit surprised when sponsors did leave, he’s now glad to have a sponsor that believes in the cause he is trying to bring attention toward.
“I didn’t breach my contract. I didn’t get arrested, I didn’t do anything to defame the team or CenturyLink or Air Academy. I just exercised my first amendment rights and they drop me for that,” Marshall said. “So for Russell Simmons to come up and step in, I think that’s great. I’m proud of what I did because I didn’t do anything that’s wrong or hurtful by any stretch.”
Marshall also said he doesn’t plan to kneel forever. He will stand for the anthem again when he feels it makes sense to him to do so.
“Whenever I stand up, I’ll stand up and I think it’ll be a good thing and I think I’ll make an impact,” he said. “I’m trying to make an impact in the community as well. When I do stand up it’ll be because kneeling really was just to bring attentions to the issues, an awareness factor, a symbol, so to speak, just like the flag is a symbol. That’s really what everything’s about. It’s not about kneeling; it’s about other things, so now I’m doing the donation thing and I’m going to do other things to back up my kneeling.”