The Canadian Football League hasn’t yet finished its season, with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Montreal Alouettes still set to compete in the Grey Cup championship game this coming Sunday. But there’s already been a notable personnel move by one CFL team. The Saskatchewan Roughriders announced Monday that they’d released cornerback Nic Marshall:
The Saskatchewan Roughriders have released American defensive back Nic Marshall. pic.twitter.com/tVIqmAJlcg
— Saskatchewan Roughriders (@sskroughriders) November 13, 2023
This came after a report from Chuck Williams of Columbus (GA) CBS affiliate WRBL Saturday on Marshall’s arrest last week in Georgia on a gun possession charge:
Former Auburn quarterback Nick Marshall and a woman in the vehicle with him were arrested in Columbus on Thursday and are facing gun charges, according to Columbus Police.
Police stopped the vehicle Marshall was driving at 35th Street and River Road. An automatic handgun that had been modified was found in the car, police say.
Marshall and Lanequa Breshay Borders, 32, were each charged with a gun possession felony.
As per AL.com’s Matt Cohen, Marshall was booked into a Columbus-area jail, and he and Borders both face a charge of “possession of sawed-off shotgun, sawed-off rifle, dangerous weapon, or silencer.”
Marshall had been with the Roughriders since 2018 as a defensive back, following time at that position in the NFL with the New York Jets and Jacksonville Jaguars. He played quarterback in college with the Auburn Tigers in 2013 and 2014, leading them to a notable Iron Bowl win, SEC championship, and BCS title game appearance in the 2013 season.
Marshall started his college career at Georgia as a cornerback in 2011, but was dismissed there that year along with two teammates for an unspecified violation of team rules. He transferred to Garden City Community College in 2012 and found success as a quarterback there, leading to his transfer to Auburn. After his time with the Tigers, he transferred to cornerback ahead of the 2015 NFL Draft. He was signed by the Jaguars as an undrafted free agent, played there through 2016, was signed off their practice roster by the New York Jets that year, but was waived by the Jets in May 2017 after receiving a four-game suspension for performance-enhancing drugs. He then signed with the Indoor Football League’s Arizona Rattlers in November 2017, but never played there, joining the CFL’s Roughriders ahead of their 2018 season instead.
With the Roughriders, Marshall became a regular starter at defensive back. He played in 77 games for them across six seasons and recorded 150 tackles, 20 interceptions, and a forced fumble. That included 31 tackles and five interceptions (tied for a career-high) this past season. But Saskatchewan still seems to have determined the severity of this charge deserved a quick offseason release. That hasn’t always been the case for CFL players who wind up embroiled in the U.S. or Canadian justice system, but it was the decision made here. This doesn’t mean that Marshall will wind up convicted, but even some players who wind up with charges against them dropped haven’t wound up returning to the CFL.
Of note, Marshall previously listed his name as “Nick Marshall” when he played NCAA football at Georgia and Auburn. But he dropped the k in his CFL roster listing.
