Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall shared a disturbing letter sent to him via the team on Instagram Friday.
The handwritten letter informs Marshall that the writer hates him and that Marshall’s “time is coming” before telling him that “we are channeling a devastating hard hit for you” that will leave Marshall in a wheelchair. Interspersed throughout the letter are a variety of racial epithets and, in what seems to be a reference to Marshall kneeling during the national anthem earlier this season, an invitation to “go back to Africa.”
Marshall said that the letter came with a return address saying it was from a sixth-grade class, which he guessed was done to make sure it got to him. Marshall said he turned the “disgusting, disheartening, deplorable” letter over to team security and coach Gary Kubiak said they are “on top of it.”
“I just wanted to show that ... to expose that racism still does exist,’' Marshall said of sharing the letter publicly, via ESPN.com. “A lot of people think, ‘Oh, it’s over; it’s not out there,’ but it really is. ... I wanted to expose that and that there are people like that and we still have a long way to go as people. I wanted to expose that people still hate each other ... whether it’s because of your belief system or the color of your skin or just because I’m not like you, you’re not like me.”
Marshall met with the Denver chief of police Robert White after choosing to kneel for the anthem and pledged $300 per tackle to “organizations that benefit the Denver community and others through the services, awareness and funds they provide” to deal with social issues. He has since resumed standing during the playing of the anthem.
Earlier this week, Giants fullback Nikita Whitlock said that he returned to his home to find it had been burglarized and that whoever broke in left swastikas and “go back to Africa” written on the walls.