Who the hell is Cassius Marsh?
Seriously, he played a grand total of nine games for the Patriots, and is currently on his seventh NFL team.
His insights into the “Patriot Way” are as valuable as those “Perfect Season” shirts that were shipped to Nicaragua.
Earlier this week, Marsh once again bashed the organization, complaining he was never afforded a lunch break. “They also treat players like crap,” he said on the “2 Bears, 1 Cave” podcast (sounds appetizing). “You don’t have a lunch period. You get there and you have to make time to eat in between meetings. And they’re like five to ten-minute periods where I would literally go scoop food and put it in a cup and crush it real quick before I got to the next meeting. There’s no fun.”
Marsh’s criticisms activated the Belichick defense team, with Deion Branch responding to the journeyman’s insults on NBC Sports Boston. “New England isn’t for every player,” said the two-time Super Bowl champ. “New England is not the place you want to go and think you’re just gonna play first and you do your work later. No, it’s you work first and then we play.”
Joe Judge, who coached under Bill Belichick for eight seasons, also vouched for his former boss — and relayed a story about how Julian Edelman responded to former Eagles offensive lineman Lane Johnson’s barbs about the Patriots being a “fear-based organization.”
On a white board, Edelman wrote three words: “Winning is fun.”
Of course, that rebuttal only works when the Patriots are winning. That’s why Marsh picked the perfect time to come back for a second helping of Belichick hate. After a dreadful 7-9 season, he’s never been more vulnerable (at least in 20 years).
Meanwhile, Tom Brady won his seventh Super Bowl with the previously moribund Tampa Bay Buccaneers, lending credence to everyone who’s insisted it was always more about the quarterback than the coach.
Brady’s role is actually interesting to consider here. Marsh’s inconsequential stint in Foxboro happened in 2017 — at the height of the Patriots’ Palace Intrigue. This was the time of Seth Wickersham, Alex Guerrero and pleading the fifth. It’s possible Brady may have been grumbling about the lack of respect around Gillette Stadium, giving Marsh tacit permission to go off on Belichick.
Back in 2018, Marsh ripped the way Belichick runs his defense, though the lineman’s gripes were personal. “They asked me to do a bunch of stuff that I had never done: covering running backs and receivers and basically almost never rushing the passer, which is what I did in playing defensive line,” he said at the time. “I confronted [Belichick] about all the things that were going on. I won’t get into detail, but it was B.S. things they were doing. I just wasn’t a fan.”
There you have it: Marsh is nothing more than a scorned ex-player. He only recorded 19 tackles with the Patriots, and was cut before Thanksgiving.
For all of Belichick’s austerity, few players have spoken out about their experiences playing under him. Maybe that’s because he’s the best coach in NFL history, and complaining about his operation is a way to quickly wind up on the unemployed line.
But then again, there is an avalanche of anti-Belichick sentiment around the league. If Gillette Stadium is such a bad place to work, then surely someone with more gravitas than Cassius Marsh would be Belichick’s lead critic.
Even during last season, no player spoke out against Belichick, publicly or anonymously. Cam Newton, who experienced one of the most trying campaigns at quarterback in recent memory, has exemplary things to say about his time in New England so far.
It’s tempting to portray Marsh’s comments as a symbol of Belichick’s declining stature around the league, just like N’Keal Harry’s trade request. It’s a slow time of year and the content needs to keep churning.
I am as guilty as anybody for manufacturing sports drama.
But my expertise in histrionics provides me with the ability to see through fake takes. Harry has been a failure here, and Marsh was a fleeting non-factor.
Remind me again why we care about what he has to say?