NFL wide receiver Brandon Marshall would be in a class of his own if scouts clocked how fast he could dash for the race card. The New York Jets player said Tom Brady's favorable "Deflate-gate" ruling shows the league favors white skin.
“White players, specifically at the quarterback position, are treated differently,” Marshall told a panel on Showtime’s “Inside the NFL" on Tuesday. He said that his opinion is shared in organizations throughout the league.
“I am a player right now. This is not just from our locker room; this is from the locker rooms across the states," he said. "This is how guys are feeling. This is not just my opinion. These are conversations I’m having with guys."
The five-time Pro Bowl athlete was challenged by co-panelist Boomer Esiason.
“So you’re telling me that there are players out there, and I don’t know if you believe this, that there are players out there, that if this was Cam Newton, that his suspension would be upheld and he would be there, that the judge would see Cam Newton differently because of the color of his skin?” Esiason asked, the Blaze reported.
“Well, when you look back at the history of this sport, you can build a case on that, yes,” Marshall replied. “[White players] just want the process to be fair and right. They just want to get it right,” said Marshall, a local CBS affiliate reported.
U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman ruled against NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's "own brand of industrial justice" on Sept. 3. Goodell sought to suspend the New England Patriots' quarterback Tom Brady for an undefined role in the conspiracy to deflate footballs. The incident happened prior to last season's AFC championship game against the Indianapolis Colts.
"The court finds that Brady had no notice that he could receive a four-game suspension for general awareness of ball deflation by others," the judge wrote, the Associated Press reported.
The league appealed the judge's ruling to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, but Brady will be free to play the first game of the season Sept. 10 against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Patriots were fined $1 million and stripped of two draft picks for the "Deflate-gate" controversy, AP reported.