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Palladino: Marshall's Race Comment Only The First Brush Fire For Bowles

By Ernie Palladino
» More Ernie Palladino Columns

Todd Bowles might as well walk around with a water tank on his back. He's going to be putting out a lot of brush fires this year.

Not that he hasn't had his share already, with Sheldon Richardson trying to push his ride through the sound barrier and Geno Smith getting his jaw broken over some pocket change he owed a fringe linebacker. But at least those incidents were confined to the Jets' franchise.

The fire Brandon Marshall set on Showtime's "Inside the NFL" Tuesday was different. When he opined that the pale color of Tom Brady's skin came into play in the NFL's handling of "Deflategate" as a regular, paid commentator on that show, he took his case out of the Jets' locker room and put it before a nation.

The opinion itself was not the problem. Anyone who's paid attention over the last calendar year knows Roger Goodell's and the United States legal system's concepts of justice often lie, let's just say, at odds with the common man's. The idea that race could have played a part in any piece of the Deflategate puzzle is certainly not out of the realm of possibility.

The problem is that the Jets' wide receiver said it on a paid, national platform and created a potential distraction for a team trying to gather itself from the last four acts of the Rex Ryan Big-Top Circus.

Don't blame Marshall entirely, though. Blame the medium and the current television and radio culture that draws players to it for a little side dough and potential avenues to post-sports careers. Football is especially conducive to that because of its weekly off-day. Its stars line up to grab radio offers for regular interview spots.

Eli Manning has one on WFAN. Odell Beckham, Jr. goes on ESPN this year.

Tom Coughlin knows Manning will be benign enough not to cause him any headaches, and he can only hope Beckham will follow Manning's lead. He can only hope neither turns into Antrel Rolle, the former Giants safety who embraced his public platform so well that his opinions about opponents, coaches and sometimes teammates rankled his subjects.

Rolle, however, became a must-listen, which is exactly the object from the radio and television point of view. Nobody wants a player who says nothing.

The difference between local radio and national TV, however, is that it's a lot easier for a player to shrug off a touchy question on radio. When he's sitting on a television panel, he has no choice but to address it. And if the player wants any shot at getting a TV job after the football career, he'd better say something worth listening to. Former Giants running back Tiki Barber worked himself into a network gig by doing just that.

Unfortunately, what Marshall did added one more issue for an already busy Bowles to deal with. The coach ideally would have wanted a quiet week to put in the game plan for Sunday's opener against the Browns.

"It's not for us to talk about," Bowles told the media Wednesday. "Anything other than what we do ourselves takes away from our preparation for the game."

He undoubtedly had better things to attend to than telling Marshall to "be smarter" about his comments. The Browns present a perfect opportunity for a fast start to put memories of last year's 4-12 mess in the rearview mirror. Though strong on defense and the offensive line, they have 36-year-old journeyman Josh McCown at quarterback and few playmakers. Head coach Mike Pettine, Ryan's former defensive coordinator, is said to be on the hot seat, and pessimism hangs over the franchise like a fog from Lake Erie.

They haven't had a winning season since 2007.

Bowles didn't need Marshall's mouth to get in the way. But it did and, as long as the wide receiver remains part of "Inside the NFL," it will continue to. Bowles can only hope Marshall will take a more conservative slant in the future.

But that's almost impossible given the requirements of a highly viewed, national TV show.

So Bowles will have to contend with the brush fires, and simply pray they don't turn into weekly outbreaks.

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