Weekly Features Across ESPN Platforms

Outside the Lines has obtained police reports and conducted interviews that detail seven separate cases of alleged domestic violence, over nearly two years in three states and Puerto Rico, involving Denver Broncos wide receiver Brandon Marshall and his former girlfriend, Rasheedah Watley. Marshall is scheduled to go on trial next month in Atlanta on two counts of simple battery. The first report was in June 2006, shortly after Marshall was drafted by the Broncos. Watley, speaking publicly for first time about her relationship with Marshall, says she declined to press charges until March 2008, when, according to a police report, she was found in their Atlanta condo with “several cuts on her lips” after a fight with Marshall. Watley’s mother, Vienna Watley, tells OTL‘s John Barr that a Broncos front-office employee called her in an attempt to get her daughter to reconcile with Marshall shortly after he was arrested for false imprisonment and domestic violence in March 2007. Last year, the NFL suspended Marshall for three regular-season games but reduced the suspension to one game, after Marshall appealed the discipline.

“I don’t want to see him do it to nobody else. And that’s really why I’m doing this today, because I feel like somebody has to stand up and stop him from doing this, ’cause the Broncos haven’t done it. The NFL hasn’t done it. The Atlanta police department hasn’t done it. Somebody has to do it.” — Rasheedah Watley, on filing charges leading to June’s trial

ESPN Deportes Visits Manny Ramirez’s N.Y. Neighborhood for Reaction to Suspension

ESPN Deportes SportsCenter (Sunday, 11 p.m.) and ESPNdeportes.com

Manny Ramirez’s 50-game suspension for illegal substance use was a hard blow to his fans. Among the hardest hit were those in Washington Heights, the New York neighborhood where the Dominican-born Ramirez grew up. ESPN Deportes visited this community to talk with those who have known Manny through the years, including his friends and high school coach.

“It was almost like, ‘Say it isn’t so, Joe,’ type of thing. That was what I was getting from a lot of people, like ‘No, he couldn’t have.’ Some people were saying, ‘Is he stupid? What is he doing?’ Some people were just really disappointed. To a lot of kids, a lot of young people, he was a hero — baseball players are. And unfortunately or however we want to look at it, they hold him to a higher standard, they put him on pedestals… when they do something like that it’s like kids get shocked and ‘What do I do now?.'” — Steve Mandl, Manny Ramirez’s high school coach

Where are they Now? Michael Chang
SportsCenter (Sunday 10 a.m. ESPN)

Twenty years ago, Michael Chang stunned the world’s No. 1-ranked player Ivan Lendl, in the fourth round of the French Open in one of the most dramatic matches in Grand Slam history. The 17-year-old went on to defeat Stefan Edberg in the final to become the youngest male Grand Slam title holder. While Chang eventually reached No. 2 in the rankings, the 1989 victory was his only Grand Slam win when he retired in 2003. Today, much of Chang’s time is dedicated to his Chang Family Foundation and the Christian Sports League he created.