Brandon Marshall Reveals New Reason Behind Bears Departure

When the Chicago Bears traded away wide receiver Brandon Marshall after the 2014 season, many assumed it was because of his strained relationship with Jay Cutler and reported discord in the locker room.

Apparently, there was another reason Marshall was sent away by the team, as he revealed in an interview with Albert Breer of The MMQB.

Marshall said that his insistence on appearing on the Showtime series “Inside the NFL,” and the Bears’ unwillingness to let him continue to make those appearances, was another part of why he ended up leaving the team:

“When I sat down with Ryan Pace and coach John Fox, we met, and I asked, ‘What do you guys think about this?’ It was a big topic. And Ryan Pace said, ‘Well, we can do that in the offseason.’ So I was like, ‘Well, what about half the season?’ ‘No.’ ‘What about once or twice?’ ‘No.’ ‘What about bye week?’ ‘No, you can do that in the offseason.’”

Marshall said that he wanted to continue to do the show not just to set up a potential career as a broadcaster when his playing days were over, but also because he worried about potentially losing his name recognition after leaving the league, like many other players have.

“You look at how unhealthy guys are when we walk away from the league or the game is taken away from us, 80 percent of us go broke, have problems, marital issues, because we’ve been defined by this sport for all of our lives,” he told Breer.

Marshall was the subject of controversy during much of his time in Chicago, including an hour-long press conference where he addressed domestic abuse allegations and his decision to call out Cutler and other teammates during a heated locker room confrontation following an October 2014 game against the Miami Dolphins at Soldier Field.

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