Somebody always has to be the wet blanket.
We were all feeling good after learning over the past couple of days that Dolphins WR Brandon Marshall was seemingly recovered from those stab wounds and was even going to join his teammates in South Florida for the player organized workouts that Chad Henne and Jake Long have been running.
But then Roger Goodell had to do his best Buzz Killington impression yesterday during his press conference at the owners' meetings in Indianapolis.
When the topic of Brandon Marshall came up, Goodell responded that the league is "aware of the situation" and "will follow that incident" but noted that he has not actually spoken with Brandon yet. Goodell was then asked if he considers it a personal conduct policy violation when a player chooses not to voluntarily cooperate with a legal investigation.
"It’s a hypothetical," said Goodell. "But I would tell you that we do expect anyone involved with a legal issue to cooperate with law enforcement."
Well Roger may "expect" his players to cooperate with law enforcement. But his answer was very vague, leaving the door open as to whether or not he feels it would be an actual policy violation. The Miami Dolphins don't seem to be worried about it, though. Omar Kelly wrote yesterday that "it is the team’s understanding that his recent incident does not put him in jeopardy of violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy because Marshall wasn’t arrested, and isn’t under investigation."
Seems logical, doesn't it? Right now, like it or not, Marshall is the victim of this unfortunate incident. Now I know that wives typically don't stab their husbands for no apparent reason. Luckily we live in a society where we are supposed to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Of course, that will bring out the conspiracy theorists who will say that Marshall must have something to hide if he doesn't want to speak with the investigators about the events leading up to the stabbing. And there's probably some validity to that line of thinking. After all, Marshall's wife told police the stabbing was "self defense."
On the other hand, what else is somebody who just stabbed her husband going to say? The knife accidentally fell and pierced the man's abdomen?
It's worth noting, too, that Marshall's attorney released a statement on Tuesday about this situation and why Marshall will not cooperate with the investigation.
"Brandon didn't ask for the no contact order, has never felt threatened by his wife, and misses her," Harvey Steinberg says in a statement. "When they drop the no contact order he'll be more than willing to sit down and discuss this matter, bringing some clarity to this unfortunate misunderstanding."
In reality, the ball is in the State Attorney's court. Allow Marshall to have contact with his wife once again and he will sit down and discuss the events of that fateful night. Pretty simple if you ask me.
It's also worth noting that Marshall has every right to not cooperate with this investigation. It's my understanding (and please correct me if I'm wrong) that victims of domestic violence are not legally required to cooperate with law enforcement investigations in the state of Florida.
With that said, it's hard for me to understand how Marshall could be in violation of the league's personal conduct policy based on what we know at this moment.
Regardless of what you or I think, though, this will be a situation worth monitoring simply because another personal conduct policy violation would likely result in a lengthy suspension for Miami's star receiver - if there even is a 2011 season, of course.