Attempting to understand Brandon Marshall is no easy feat. It's a challenge reporter Jared S. Hopkins gamely took on in a long feature that ran in Sunday's Chicago Tribune.
Hopkins' time with the new Chicago Bears wide receiver was sometimes chummy, other times tense. Marshall was skeptical of Hopkins' motives and was especially bothered by the reporter digging into a past that includes drug arrests and multiple instances of violence against women involving Freddie Marshall, Brandon's father.
Marshall was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder last year, acknowledging there were times he would go a whole week without leaving his house. Psychotherapy taught him how to deal with his illness.
"Today I get angry at the same things, but it's how it affects me. It's how I deal with it, how I cope with it," he said. "And it's not just anger. It's sadness. When I get sad, when I get lonely, when I get happy -- it's all emotions."
Marshall is more reluctant to talk about his father, with whom he seemingly has a complicated relationship.
"My dad is someone who came from the bottom -- truly the bottom -- and to me, he's a successful man 'cause he didn't have a lot of positive people around him," he said.
The profile is well worth the time, but it's difficult to say what you learn about Marshall. The wide receiver randomly invited a reporter to stay at his home with his family, but kept Hopkins at a distance and treated him with suspicion. Hopkins said Marshall has an "uneasy and unpredictable energy," and that certainly comes through in the piece.
