WESTON, FLA. (WSVN) - - A South Florida athlete and former Miami Dolphin is outraged and speaking out after, he said, security guards at his new neighborhood called authorities on the day he moved into his new home.
Cellphone video posted to Instagram captured former NFL wide receiver Brandon Marshall, who is Black, confronting Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies in Weston.
“This is the problem: I come here, you feel uncomfortable,” he said in the video.
This was not the house warming the former Pro Bowler was hoping for when, he said, security guards contacted BSO upon seeing him.
“My first day moving into my new house, because my name is not on the list, you call the cops. Now you call the cops,” Marshall is heard saying in the video.
Marshall spoke with 7News about the incident on Thursday.
“The reality is, people fear our skin. That’s the reality,” he said. “Like, just moved into a new house, and all I asked the guy was to call the front desk, ’cause literally just got our keys.”
Marshall, who played 13 years in the NFL, including a year with the Dolphins, has lived in Weston since 2012.
The football pro is in the process of opening a second gym in the city, House of Athlete.
“The youth athlete here in Weston is well represented, but there wasn’t a facility that was able to serve this, how amazing our community is,” he said.
But when police were called as he tried to enter his neighborhood, coupled with the racial justice movement happening across the country, Marshall said he started to see much more than a gym taking shape.
“We need to use our facilities to have these conversations,” he said. “Yeah, let’s work out, but at the same time, let’s also check in with each other and ask the question, ‘How are we doing?'”
He felt the pull again when NBA players refused to take the court Wednesday in protest of the Jacob Blake shooting.
“It’s not our jobs to hold the police, the bad apples, the bad police accountable,” he said. “There’s literally people who get paid to do that, but it is on the athlete to be responsible with their platform, and I think that’s what we’re seeing with the NBA.”
Now he wants what happened to him, and what he sees happening to other black men across the country, to spark those difficult but necessary conversations.
“This is what we’re seeing every single day, got two kids in the car right now,” said Marshall in the Instagram video.
Those conversations, said Marshall, can lead to genuine change and bring about healing in the community.
“There’s so much good here, but for us to continue to have this amazing community, beautiful community, we have to lean into the issues that are happening around us,” he said.
The developer of Marshall’s new neighborhood did not immediately respond to 7News’ calls for comment.
Marshall, meanwhile, said he’s excited to use his gym as a way to connect with the youth in the community.
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.