Former New England Patriots outside linebacker Cassius Marsh once again criticized "The Patriot Way" during a recent podcast appearance.
During an appearance the 2 Bears, 1 Cavepodcast with Tom Segura, Marsh acknowledged the Pats' method as "extremely impressive" for its focus on work ethic, but chastised the organization for what he deemed as treating "players like crap."
“They don’t, you don’t have like — you don’t have a lunch, period,” Marsh said. “You get there and you have to make time to eat in between meetings. And they’re like 5-10 minute periods where I would literally go scoop food and put in in a cup and like just crush it real quick before I got to the next meeting. It’s just like there’s no … no B.S. There’s no fun.”
Marsh acknowledged that he "got in trouble" for making previous comments criticizing the Patriots for having no fun, but claimed some Patriots players thanked him privately for speaking out.
“Here’s the thing. Like, over there, nobody says anything publicly, because they’ve won so many championships. So you don’t want to upset the fan base, because after you win a Super Bowl, you can get paid for signings in New England for the rest of your life, because you’re a Super Bowl champ,” Marsh said. “So it was funny like when I did that article, a lot of the players like thanked me for like making it public on how bad they treat guys.”
Marsh also addressed Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, who he did acknowledge as "an extremely intelligent coach," but sarcastically jabbed the coach's meetings as "super, super exciting to listen to him talk."
“Dude, OK. So [laughing]. Yo, so, imagine like, oh man … imagine you’re working like a 9 to 5, and like, everybody’s at like a team meeting, right? And it’s almost in like a school assembly, OK? And the dude who walks in is like the CEO and he’s like an old dude who you know just plays no games. So like when he walks in, it’s dead quiet. Like … everything stops. All phones get put away. All laughter, any type of little chit-chat, done. K? Nobody plays around with Bill. I mean … nobody plays with Bill for the most part,” Marsh said. “So he walks in there and then he comes up to like a podium and he addresses the team for like 45 minutes to an hour every morning. He talks about the GM’s history, talks about the team’s history, talks about defensive, offensive coordinator’s history, the way that they used to run their defense, the way that they run their defense now, the history of all of the coaches.”
Former wide receiver Deion Branch, a member of two of the Patriots' six Super Bowl teams, defended his former team in response to Marsh's comments.
"New England isn't for every player," Branch said Tuesday on Early Edition. "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. As far as playing the game in New England, I do not agree with him on that. I never had a situation where I felt myself or any of my former teammates felt like they were mistreated."
Marsh has played for seven NFL teams during seven previous NFL seasons, which included a backup role for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2020.
The former UCLA standout has 128 total tackles, 14.0 sacks, 25 tackles for loss, and five forced fumbles during his NFL career, which includes three tackles and one sack during nine appearances and one start for New England.
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