Count Cassius Marsh among the players who aren't fans of "The Patriot Way."
The veteran defensive end, who was claimed off waivers by the San Francisco 49ers in November after a nine-game stint in New England, says he had a miserable time playing for coach Bill Belichick.
"They don't have fun there. There's nothing fun about it. There's nothing happy about it. I didn't enjoy any of my time there, you know what I'm saying?" Marsh told the San Francisco Chronicle's Eric Branch. "It made me for the first time in my life think about not playing football because I hated it that much."
It appears most of Marsh's Belichick beef stems from not being allowed to play to his strengths. The Patriotstraded a fifth-round pick to acquire Marsh from the Seattle Seahawks in September, and it appeared Belichick would use him to help spearhead the team's pass rush. Instead, Marsh was forced to abandon the speed edge rushing role he was used to playing in Seattle.
"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," Marsh said. "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. And so I, basically, without asking to get cut, I kind of asked to get cut."
Marsh added that he's enjoying life a lot more since being picked up by the 49ers, who signed him to a two-year, $7.7 million contract extension in February.
"Hopefully I'll be a Niner forever," Marsh said.
Marsh isn't the first player to criticize the "no-fun" approach the Patriots take as part of their "no days off" creed. Still, it's futile to argue with the results of the Belichick-Tom Brady era in New England. Love him or hate him, Belichick has transformed the Patriots into the league's most successful franchise over the last two decades.
