The mantle has been passed. Denver Broncos wide receiver Brandon Marshall has taken up where Pacman Jones left off as the NFL’s unofficial one-man walking crime spree.
Marshall has been arrested three times in the past year. Then there was the whole I-slipped-on-a-McDonalds-wrapper incident.
A Denver Post investigation reveals Marshall should have been arrested on at least four other occassions. Police were summoned to Marshall’s residence three times on domestic violence calls. During each call Marshall’s girlfriend said he hit her. On all three occassions Denver police let Marshall go. He was not arrested on any of the three domestic violence calls.
A friend of Marshall’s girlfriend also told police that he once rammed into her car while the girlfriend was a passenger. Marshall then threw a rock at the car. Marshall wasn’t arrested in that incident, either.
Marshall HAS been arrested for theft and assaulting an officer among other charges. His own father says Marshall once pulled a gun on him.
The Denver Post article details 12 seperate incidents where Marshall has been in trouble with the law.
Marshall’s hand is still hurt after the “horseplay” incident that injured him this offseason. He was so concerned about it he joked with reporters about still not being able to “wipe my ass” during minicamp.
(For video of Marshall commenting on wiping his ass click: HERE)
FORMER NFL PLAYER CHRIS HENRY GETS HIS SUV REPOSSESSED
Ever have one of those days?
Former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry had one today. While in court for his trial on assault charges, Henry had car repossessed.
Henry is accused of punching a University of Cincinnati student in March. He was cut by the Bengals following his arrest over the incident. That was just the latest in a string of arrests for Henry including marijuana possession, DUI and assault.
Not only did Henry lose his job with the Bengals but he has also been suspended indefinitely by the NFL. He is currently serving house arrest for his conviction on another charge. Just where he is serving the house arrest isn’t certain since, in addition to having his car repo’d, Henry has also had his home foreclosed on.
In the below mug shot, Henry has the distinction of being the only NFL player ever arrested wearing his own replica jersey.
TERRY BRADSHAW AFTER STEROIDS: MOVIE CLIP FROM FAILURE TO LAUNCH THAT SHOWS HIS BARE BUTT
In a radio interview with Dan Patrick, former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw admitted he used steroids during his playing career. Bradshaw says he used the steroids to recover from injury “not to get bigger and stronger and faster.”
For the last several months Tampa talk radio host, Steve Duemig, has been a man on a mission. He is leading a one-man effort to get the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers to release tight end Jerramy Stevens because of his extensive criminal background.
Duemig’s criticism of Stevens received national attention because his radio station, WDAE, is actually the flagship station of the Buccaneers.
Duemig has been particularly critical of Stevens’ problems with drinking and driving. The tight end has actually been suspended by the league for the first two games of the upcoming season because of another DUI conviction.
In an astonishing bit of irony, Duemig himself was arrested in Florida and charged with DUI.
Portfolio.com and has a lengthy piece today about a Muslim football player who may have been kept out of the National Football League because of his father’s ties to terrorism. The article is also featured on Pro Football Talk.
Muhammad Abdulqaadir was an All-American running back at Southern Illinois who set the school record for touchdowns. Abdulqaadir ran for over 1,000 yards his Junior and Senior seasons and was a finalist for the Walter Payton Award which goes to the nation’s top 1-AA player. He was also a high school and JUCO All-American who ran a 4.4 40 yard dash and was originally projected as a mid-round NFL draft pick.
Despite all of these accomplishments, Abdulqaadir went unselected in the 2004 NFL draft. Not only that, but he never got invited to any team’s training camp and hasn’t received an offer or even a phone call from any NFL team since. The running back has spent the last several years bouncing around the Arena League and the Canadian Football League.
The Portfolio.com piece speculates that the running back’s lack of NFL job offers may be directly tied to his father’s involvement as an alleged terrorist.
The FBI suspected Abdulqaadir’s father of terrorist activity. He was a friend of Zacarias Moussaoui (the so-called “20th hijacker” from 9/11.) Abdulqaadir’s father also did recruiting for a radical Sunni Muslim organization. He was detained as one of the first U.S. citizens who was a material witness after 9/11. His name also came up in connection with the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and the Oklahoma City bombing. Abdulqaadir’s father was never arrested on terrorist carges but was convicted on a federal weapons charge. He has since been released from prison.
The Portfolio.com article quotes a source who feels that the suspected terrorist activity by his father may be the reason Muhammad Abdulqaadir has never received a chance by the “patriotic” NFL.
A woman who was with football player Pacman Jones during a 2007 brawl at a Las Vegas strip club is dead. Sadia Morrison was apparently thrown off the roof of an apartment building in the Bronx.
Morrison was arrested and charged with felony battery for her role in a fight at Minxx strip club during NBA All Star weekend last year. She was one of the chief instigators of the brawl hitting Aaron Cudworth, one of the club’s bouncers, over the head with a champagne bottle. A melee ensued and another Minxx bouncer, Tom Urbanski, was shot and paralyzed.
Neither Morrison nor Pacman Jones was charged with the shooting but plead guilty to assault charges for their roles in the fight. Morrison received three years probation. Arvin Kenti Edwards was eventually charged with shooting Urbansi. Police say Morrison’s death will not effect their case against Edwards because she was not a witness to the shooting itself.
Morrison was described as a former hair stylist to “several A-list celebrities” including 50 Cent and Kanye West. She also worked as a publicist, and a promoter and interned at Vibe magazine.
The above photos were originally obtained by spyonvegas.com and posted this morning on a number of websites including With Leather, TMZ and Kissing Suzy Kolber.
They show Oakland Raiders wide receiver Javon Walker spraying the crowd at Tryst nightclub in Las Vegas with champagne. Shortly after these photos were taken Walker was beaten unconscious and apparently robbed on a street in back of Wynn Casino (where the pictures were taken.) Reports say Walker suffered a broken orbital bone above his eye in the incident.
Las Vegas Review Journal columnist Norm! (the best in the business) was the first to report the story of Walker’s champagne dreams.
Walker is getting destroyed by various media outlets. Denver talk radio is CRUCIFYING the controversial receiver. Bronco fans remember Walker going to party in Vegas after the death of his Denver teammate Darrent Williams and missing his funeral. Meanwhile, the ESPN blog Hashmarks points out the Williams shooting also happened after a champagne spraying incident. Broncos receiver Brandon Marshall and his cousin apparently irritated gang members in a Denver club by spraying champagne on them.
Williams was shot after the incident and died in Walker’s arms. A blood-soaked Walker showed up at the Broncos training facilities the day after the shooting.
PHOTO VIA THE BIG LEAD
I actually used to live a couple of blocks from where the Walker assault happened in Las Vegas. It’s just a couple of hundred yards from the location where Tupac was shot.
INTERSECTION OFF KOVAL BLVD IN LAS VEGAS WHERE TUPAC SHAKUR WAS SHOT
The Chicago Bears today released troubled running back Cedric Benson who was arrested twice this offseason.
Benson is the latest in a string of bust running backs drafted by the Bears. Curtis Enis and Rashaan Salaam were both superstar college runners who flamed out and busted in their NFL careers after being high Chicago draft picks.
What’s amazing is in a side-by-side comparison of their statistics, Benson was JUST AS UNPRODUCTIVE as either Enis or Salaam despite being drafted higher (fourth) in the first round.
Look at the career stats. Benson is just as big a failure as either Enis or Salaam:
CEDRIC BENSON
Career Rushing Yards: 1593
Yards Per Carry: 3.8
Career Games/Starts: 35/12
Career Receptions: 26
Career TD’s: 10
CURTIS ENIS
Career Rushing Yards: 1497
Yards Per Carry: 3.3
Career Games/Starts: 36/18
Career Receptions: 59
Career TD’s: 6
RASHAAN SALAAM
Career Yards: 1684
Yards Per Carry: 3.6
Career Games/Starts: 33/21
Career Receptions: 16
Career TD’s: 14
Conclusion: Cedric Benson actually ran for fewer career yards with the Bears than Rashaan Salaam (who was on an SI list of top 25 draft busts EVER.) He also started barely half as many games.
Benson also played in less games and had half as many career receptions as Curtis Enis.
JASON PETER WAS AN ALL AMERICAN AND NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP WINNER IN COLLEGE AT NEBRASKA
In truly one of his best pieces I’ve ever read, Peter King of Sports Illustrated has a fascinating feature this week on former Nebraska football star and NFL bust Jason Peter.
The article is about Peter’s addiction to drugs and sex which he chronicles in an upcoming book.
King starts his interview with Jason Peters with the open-ended comment,
“I’m shocked you’re still alive.”
“I am too,” Peters replies.
Powerful stuff. Peter’s entire book (and the rest of King’s article) is a laundry list of self abuse:
Vicodin. Ambien. Cocaine. Crack. Heroin. GHB, the date-rape drug. Lots of others I’ve never heard of. He’s not sure if he’s been in rehab six or seven times. He’s blown most of the $6.5 million Carolina paid him over a disappointing, injury-filled NFL career with the Panthers. Nights and weeks with prostitutes so numerous … well, so numerous that his Madame at a high-rolling Manhattan brothel ran out of girls for him.
How did it all happen, this trail that led to one suicide try and thoughts of a second, when he’d use a gun instead of the drugs his body had built up such a tolerance to?
Unlike a lot of addicts-turned authors, Peter places the blame for his excesses solely on HIMSELF. Jason Peter’s book is entitled Hero: A Memoir of the Underground . It is published by St. Martin’s Press and comes out in July.
