Broncos investigating racist, threatening letter sent to Brandon Marshall

Broncos' Brandon Marshall kneeling before an Oct. 9 game. (AP)
Broncos’ Brandon Marshall kneeling before an Oct. 9 game. (AP)

Not everyone agrees with the NFL players taking a knee during the playing of the national anthem, and there is certainly a respectful, reasonable way to express one’s disappointment or disagreement with the protest.

But one individual went disgustingly too far in a handwritten letter sent to Denver Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall. Marshall, who kneeled for the first eight games of the season, posted photos of the letter, sent to him at the Broncos’ facility, on his Instagram feed on Friday. Its author likely doesn’t understand that taking the time to write out such hateful filth actually makes Marshall’s point about racial injustice and racist attitudes.

(WARNING: Vulgar language.)

Part 2

A photo posted by Brandon Marshall (@bmarshh54) on Dec 9, 2016 at 9:53am PST

(As an aside, this particular knuckle-dragging fool must have an outdated copy of “Racism for Idiots” – who uses “jigaboo” anymore? It’s a really, really old racist trope.)

Since the letter included a threat of physical violence, Marshall handed it over to Denver’s team security staff, and it is investigating.

Speaking in front of his locker on Friday, Marshall told reporters that the envelope the letter came in had a return address of “Mrs. Jackson’s Sixth Grade Class” and “We love you Mr. Marshall” on the back.

But that was merely a cover, intended to get Marshall to open it. “They wanted to make sure I got it,” he said.

“I was taken back,” Marshall said. “I had to read it over again and I’m like, ‘wow, did somebody send this to me?’ Because at first it said, ‘You’re a great player,’ and I had a smile on my face. And then it said, ‘Not!’ and I was like, ‘oh, what’s going on?’ I showed it to Shane (Ray, his teammate and locker room neighbor) and he was taken back too.”

Ray, sitting nearby, interjects, “Disgusting.”

“Disgusting, disheartening, deplorable, use a bunch of words for it,” Marshall said.

It wasn’t the first piece of hate mail Marshall received since he began his protest, but its contents are what caused him to hand it over to team security.

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“I think because it was a threat. They said, ‘you’ve got something coming to you’ (and) just so many racist, derogatory words that were in it, just a bunch of crazy things that were in it,” he said. “I’m like, ‘man, this is wild.’ That kind of stood out to me, that someone would have that much hate or malice toward me, or put that much energy into writing something like that and send it to me. It takes so much energy to hate; I just don’t understand it.”

Marshall ended his protest in early November, explaining that he feels there has been progress made; Marshall has met with members of the Denver Police department, and the department has agreed to evaluate its use-of-force policy after those discussions. Marshall also lost two area endorsement contracts because of his decision to protest.

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