Mike Shanahan on Brandon Marshall: "He's a Real Good Kid"

Earlier this offseason Mike Shanahan cut Travis Henry from the Denver Broncos because he felt the running back wasn't showing the necessary commitment to team and football. The team also jettisoned such questionable characters as Todd Sauerbrun and Javon Walker while spending a lot of time talking about high character football players.

All of which brings us to Brandon Marshall. He's piled up catches since joining the Broncos but also racking up off-field incidents which make you wonder about his character and commitment at the same time. The kinds of incidents that would be red flags to a coach like Shanahan. He didn't espouse any bad feelings to the Denver Post, though.

"I can't go into great detail, for obvious reasons, but Brandon has a good upside and he's a real good kid. I feel very good where Brandon's at. I think he'll be fine."

Shanahan also pointed out that Marshall continually has problems with the same woman, none of which have led to convictions in court. Which seems to indicate that he's convinced she's lying or that Marshall's goodness is somehow unsullied by hitting this particular woman. I'd guess the former but Marshall's lying about how he injured his arm doesn't seem to bother the coach so we can't be sure.

The NFL is still investigating and deciding if it will discipline Marshall but I'd be surprised if they didn't. While the domestic violence allegations have remained just that, the DUI is likely enough to cause the league to take action.