ESPN responds to Brandon Marshall’s Twitter blasts

The NFL has been under heavy fire recently with player misconduct creating a cyclone of negative publicity. Domestic violence issues have been a hot topic in that conversation, of course, thanks to the Ray Rice saga.

And when domestic violence topics surface around the NFL, Bears receiver Brandon Marshall is often in the footnotes, his turbulent past including a pile-up of domestic incidents that almost derailed his career.

In 2012, ESPN's documentary program "E:60" profiled Marshall and his roller coaster history. Then on Tuesday, the network opted to re-air that profile done by Lisa Salters with just a sprinkling of new content.

That rehashing of old news with barely any present-day context clearly irked Marshall, who laid into the network from his Twitter account.

Late Tuesday night, ESPN responded to Marshall's blasts with a statement to the Tribune.

"This story was originally told two years ago on E:60," the statement read, "and we felt it was particularly worth telling again at this point given what's been in the news the past week. Marshall's story brings an important perspective: the story of a player who faced similar circumstances and through persistent dedication, changed his life, in an effort to regain the respect of fans and players."

In some ways, the Rice-Marshall parallels seem like an apples-to-oranges situation at this point. Sure, both players have been embroiled in controversy due to domestic violence issues. But Marshall's apparent turnaround, he has vocalized, has been catalyzed by the 2011 diagnosis he received as having borderline personality disorder. The receiver's pursuit of treatment for that issue as well as his foundation’s steadfast effort to stimulate the national conversation on mental health awareness have been a big part of Marshall's upturn.

He's in his third season now with the Bears and has had no off-field legal troubles to speak of since arriving in Chicago in the spring of 2012.

As quarterback Jay Cutler noted in the ESPN piece, "He's one of those guys who used to be the problem or be causing the problem. Now if there's any conflict or any communication issues, he's one of the guys who steps right in there and helps solve the problem."

Marshall was asked to be part of ESPN's "E:60" update on his story but declined. The network instead included interviews with Marshall that were more than two years old without explicit explanation of that dynamic. Which seems to be part of the reason that the Bears receiver was so agitated Tuesday.

Tribune columnist David Haugh also contributed to the update on Marshall and was included at both the front and back ends of the piece.

Haugh asserted that Marshall's arrival to the Bears in 2012 came with plenty of questions.

"You expected trouble," he said. "You expected distraction."

But at the end of the piece, Haugh also highlighted some of Marshall's transformation.

"What you've gotten is a guy who tried very hard to be a good citizen," the columnist added. "He's stayed out of trouble. The Bears have been very happy with everything that Brandon Marshall has done."

Contributing: Ed Sherman