Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall said he was disturbed, sickened and upset after watching on social media Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby shoot and kill an unarmed black man named Terence Crutcher earlier this week, but sadly he wasn’t surprised.
Marshall said killings like Crutcher’s and the numerous other deaths of black men at the hands of police led him to decide to kneel during the national anthem against Carolina, Indianapolis and this weekend against Cincinnati. His plan was always for the protest to be fluid, but Crutcher’s killing has adjusted his potential timeline even further.
“This is a week to week thing for me. But things kind of change,” said Marshall. “If I do it now, then why am I standing now? It’s week to week. We’ll see.”
Marshall said that Crutcher’s killing “unfortunately” confirmed why he’s committed to this protest. Shelby was charged with first-degree manslaughter by the Tulsa County district attorney Thursday.
So far, Marshall has been the only Bronco to kneel during the anthem in an effort to protest police brutality among other social injustices in this country. Several Broncos have supported his cause publicly, most recently all-pro pass rusher Von Miller.
“For me personally, I got huge respect for the flag and everything, and soldiers and all this stuff. But I’m with those guys 100 percent, and I think it’s great. It really creates discussion that needs to be had,” Miller said. “We’ve seen the current situation that we’re dealing with this week, that’s what (49ers quarterback) Colin (Kaepernick) is doing it for, that’s what Brandon is doing it for. And it should continue to happen so we can continue to have these great discussions to make this great country even better. It’s already a great country, but there are still issues that we have to face and fix. I feel like over time, we’ll get that done. But I’m with Colin Kaepernick, Brandon Marshall, all those guys, 100 percent.”
Marshall has accepted the perils and pressures that come with his protest, but he isn’t the only Bronco player affected mentally and emotionally by these incidents.
“I’m just tired of it. I’m tired of seeing that (stuff) on every city in the country’s media outlet. I’m tired of having to worry about my family getting pulled over,” running back Kapri Bibbs told The Denver Post Wednesday. “Me and Bennie (Fowler) were going home the other day. We were looking at the gas tank and I said, ‘don’t let it go on E. Lord forbid we run out of gas and somebody pull up next to us and ask us if we need help – then our hands end up on the back of our head, then a bullet end up in our back.’ You never know, nobody’s safe anymore.”
A separate police shooting Tuesday of a black man in Charlotte, N.C. led to protests over the last two days that turned violent. Broncos’ safety Darian Stewart has a home and family members in Charlotte. He’s glad to say that everyone he knows in the city is safe, but he said he’s frustrated at the damage being caused and the happenings that sparked it.
“I know a lot of people, family members, different friends say that they’re afraid it could be one of our family members, it could be us, it could be anybody,” Marshall added about the killings. “It’s kind of sad.”