ENGLEWOOD, Colo.—Denver Broncos wide receiver Brandon Marshall was in New York on Tuesday to appeal his three-game suspension for violating the league’s personal conduct policy.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell had indicated he would reduce Marshall’s suspension to two games if he kept in contact with a league-appointed counselor and stayed out of further legal trouble. Marshall and his attorney, Harvey Steinberg, want a further reduction in that penalty.
A message was left for Steinberg on Tuesday night.
“No word on how it went. I have no idea,” coach Mike Shanahan said earlier in the day. “He’s going through the appeal process, no clue what went on or when it’s going to be finished. I’m sure it will be done in a timely fashion.”
Earlier this month Goodell suspended Marshall over a series of off-the-field misdeeds, most notably his March 6 arrest on a domestic violence warrant filed by his former girlfriend in Atlanta. No charges have been filed in that case.
Marshall caught 102 passes for 1,325 yards and seven touchdowns last season and has shown no falloff this summer despite suffering a gash on his right arm that required emergency surgery this spring and sidelined him for almost all of the team’s offseason field work.
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RAMSEY SHAKES OFF INJURY:@ Patrick Ramsey is preparing for Friday’s preseason finale like it’s a regular-season game.
First, he wants to make sure his right elbow is fine.
Ramsey, the Broncos backup quarterback, was hit hard with 5:15 left in Denver’s preseason game against Green Bay last week. The ball popped out of his hand and was intercepted by Tracy White, setting up Kregg Lumpkin’s game-winning field goal in the Packers’ 27-24 victory.
It was Ramsey’s final snap of the game.
“When I first got hit I had no idea what it was because everything went numb and I didn’t know,” Ramsey said. “At first it was my elbow and my shoulder, but my shoulder’s fine. Now my elbow’s still sore.”
Ramsey was taking snaps early in Tuesday’s practice and throwing downfield. He was wearing a wrap on his right elbow, but it didn’t limit his ability to throw the ball.
Ramsey doesn’t expect to see much playing time when the regular season starts, so he wants to play as much as possible against the Cardinals on Friday night.
“If I can I would like to go ahead and go just to stay sharp,” he said. “If I do play in the regular season I will have played that much closer to that date.”
Ramsey expects to get plenty of playing time in a game where staying healthy is more important than the final score. Even though the game doesn’t mean anything, and the Broncos starters will sit out and focus on the Sept. 8 season opener at Oakland, Ramsey said he is concentrating on Arizona.
“We still have a game to go, and obviously we’re going to focus on that,” he said. “The regular season is so close it’s hard not to think about it.”
Ramsey said he’s not worrying about his elbow.
“Honestly, it’s hard to play the game that way if you start thinking about staying healthy,” he said. “But at the same time you want to win the game, you play to play well as always. You want to come out pretty clean.”
