Brandon Marshall caught a touchdown pass from Jay Cutler to give his team the lead 33-30 in their game with the Cleveland Browns on November 6, 2008. Instead of celebrating with his teammates, the Broncos did something peculiar. Several of them swarmed around Marshall and tried to restrain him.
Glove Gesture for Barack Obama
Fellow wide receiver Brandon Stokley ran right up to Marshall and prevented him from revealing something that he had pulled from his pants. Marshall later revealed that it was a half black half white glove to honor the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States.
Black and White Glove
Showing the glove would have provoked an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and set the Broncos back 15 yards on the ensuing kick off. With just 1:14 left in the game and a slim 3 point lead, Marshall's gesture could have cost them the game. They ended up winning. After the game, Brandon Marshall explained his intentions at the post game news conference.
Brandon Marshall
Marshall said, "Barack Obama's election as the 44th president of the United States is a tremendous symbol of unity. I wanted to create that symbol of unity because Obama inspires me... our multiculture society and I know at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised that black glove and that fist as a silent gesture of Black power and liberation. Forty years later I wanted to make my own statement." Marshall followed that with a heavy sigh and a long pause.
Denver Bronco Glove
Marshall then said again, "I wanted to make my own statement" followed by another heavy sigh and another long pause. Marshall wore dark sunglasses and looked down at a prepared statement nearly the entire time he spoke. He was visibly nervous, appeared upset and stammered at times.
First Black President
Marshall went on to say, "In a gesture to represent the progress we made. This way, my way of honoring the progress and inconclusiveness. I may get some..." then Marshall seemed to break up emotionally for a moment. He concluded by saying, "I might get some criticism but, you know, social landmarks are bigger than fines to me especially two days after historical election."
Half Black Half White Glove
ESPN showed Marshall's comments on Sportscenter immediately following the game. Anchor Neil Everett was very critical of Marshall's empty gesture. Everett said, "take the flag and see what Mike Shanahan thinks of that." Shanahan is the head coach of the Denver Broncos. Everett went on to say, "it's not about you or what you think. It's about the team and what they need to do and in a game like that you can't afford the penalty."
Civil Rights Hero?
Sports chat boards, like ProSportsDaily.com were deluged with postings about the incident moments after it happened. A few shrugged it off. One post said, "It's really not that bad guys. He's just happy Obama won, he just wanted to make a statement. Yes, it was bad timing and thank God his teammates stopped him because it could've been a disaster but in all it was just a tribute."
Just Selfish
A vast majority of the postings echoed the sentiments of the poster who started the conversation. He said, "WOW I can't tell you how little respect I have for Marshall because of this. I can understand what he was trying to do, but he literally tried to cost his team the game to get himself some props in the black community. I don't say that to be offensive at all, but if you saw the game and understand situations in football you would understand that making a tribute that will cost your team the game is no tribute at all. In fact it's a selfish disgrace."
Kent Ninomiya - Kent Ninomiya is a veteran journalist with more than 22 years experience as a television news anchor, reporter, writer and executive.
