Brandon Marshall’s clarifying moment came when the boy walked up to him and said he’d seen the Broncos wide receiver on TV.
He expected praise. Not this time.
“I saw you on TV, and you were in a suit,” the boy said.
“What do you mean?” asked Marshall.
“You were walking into a courtroom,” the boy said.
Marshall shook his head as he recounted the story last Tuesday while sitting at a cafeteria table at Wyatt-Edison Charter School.
“That kind of opened my eyes even more that these kids are watching me,” he said. “And now that everything’s in my past, it’s a reminder for me every day that on Tuesdays, when I come down here, I want these kids to have nothing but positive things to talk about. Whether it’s in their life or in my life.”
It is part of the reason he’s here. He has shown up at Wyatt-Edison every Tuesday afternoon since the start of the football season to help coach students on right from wrong, a subject in which he’s become an unfortunate expert.
Like the fictional Will Smith movie character, Marshall has become sort of a real-life Hancock, in this case, an athletic hero whose off-field missteps have overshadowed the positive attributes of someone his closest friends say is a good person. They say he’s changing, learning as much from the kids as they do from him.
“It keeps me accountable for what I do,” Marshall said. “And just kind of reminds me every day that not only do I have to be accountable to the NFL and the Denver Broncos and our community, but these kids that are watching.”
The booming, authoritative voice of Marshall’s newest mentor, the dreadlocked 55-year-old Rev. Leon Kelly, executive director of Open Door Youth Gang Alternatives, rises above the chatter of young voices. He’s looking for silence.
“I’m in a pretty good mood today,” Kelly said, standing in a cafeteria that doubles as a gym and auditorium. “I would suggest you don’t mess it up.”
Kelly is part of Marshall’s new inner circle. Former Broncos receiver Rod Smith occupies a spot. Teammate Elvis Dumervil, who has been close to Marshall since they were drafted together in 2006, tags along on these Tuesday visits.
“He’s a good guy,” Dumervil said. “He just gets caught up in the wrong deal sometimes, and unfortunately some people view him differently. He’s a genuine guy, very passionate. A lot of people need chances. I think this has been a great deal for him.”
Coming of age
Kelly has run Open Door since 1987. It is one of the programs Wyatt-Edison Charter School provides as a service to its students. He has brought in athletes before, including quarterback Jay Cutler and former Bronco Nick Ferguson. Marshall and Dumervil connected with Kelly when Ferguson left the team.
In Marshall, who first spoke to the students in June, Kelly said he sees potential — as a person, not a football player. Kelly isn’t necessarily interested in the fact that Marshall, 24, is one of the NFL’s brightest young stars, ranking third in receptions (34) and sixth in receiving yards (423). He said he hasn’t really followed Marshall’s off-field travails, which include three arrests in a year’s span, a recent guilty plea to driving while impaired — which led to a year’s probation — and multiple domestic violence complaints that led to a one-game suspension by the NFL.
Kelly is interested in the Marshall he has come to know.
“To be able to see him as a person, in the beginning I saw his youthfulness, his immaturity in certain areas,” Kelly said. “But then over the period of time, you started to see him become refined. You start to see him growing.”
A learning experience
Marshall bounces from classroom to classroom at Wyatt-Edison, a K-8 school. He will read to students, help with school work or just lend an ear.
“It’s invaluable,” said academy director Kenneth Burdette. “You really can’t put it into words. When you bring in someone from the community, a very good athlete, (it helps), somebody who went through tough times growing up and continues to make mistakes, as he freely tells our students. But he’s learning from them. He’s doing something about it. It’s a good lesson for our kids.”
Sean Lynch, a fifth-grader, sat patiently Tuesday, decked out in a white Broncos jersey and holding a football for Marshall to sign. Next to him was Kelly’s 10-year- old son, Geoffrey.
“You look up to teachers, but some kids think athletes help you more,” Geoffrey said. “When an athlete comes up and tells you to do good in school, you can see they are the same as teachers.”
Said Sean: “You look up to teachers because they are an adult. And they tell you what to do and what not to do. But since Geoffrey and I play sports and to see an athlete like this, it’s crazy.”
Hearing those words pleases Marshall.
“A lot of times guys come out here and kind of get choked up on words and really don’t know what to say, just out here, just doing it because they are trying to be part of something just because it looks good,” Marshall said. “But it makes it easier for me to come out to relate to the kids and see me go through the changes I’m going through and the way I’m doing it.
“They always hear a lot of bad things, but for someone to hear, ‘Keep up the good work, you’re doing a good job,’ it means a lot. A lot of kids come up and talk to me about things going on in their classroom and at home. I’m just another ear. I’m a lending hand. That’s it. Nothing special.”
Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
Marshall, Broncos lend their support
Brandon Marshall and other Broncos
support Rev. Leon Kelly’s Open
Door Youth Gang Alternatives program.
Students from the program
who made positive choices and exhibited
good behavior were treated
to free rides and games at Elitch
Gardens on Friday, joined by Marshall
and several other Broncos.
The mission statement of the
Open Door Youth Gang Alternatives
is to establish credible, sustained
and life-altering relationships
with at-risk youth and their
families affected by gang culture
and violence. It seeks to provide alternative,
positive and structured
activities, family support and intervention
for at-risk youth. For more
information, visit www.therev.org.
