Brandon Marshall: I sold Matt Forte on dream-turned-‘nightmare’

HOUSTON — Jets wide receiver Brandon Marshall recruited former Bears teammate Matt Forte last offseason.

“I sold him on a dream that didn’t come true,” Marshall said Thursday. “The dream turned into a nightmare.”

The season, Marshall said, reminded him of another 5-11 effort: the 2014 campaign that got Bears coach Marc Trestman and general manager Phil Emery fired. But Marshall said he learned lessons from the way he acted then, which included a postgame tirade, challenging a Detroit fan to a boxing match and other assorted antics.

“The thing I did differently — and the reason why I did it differently is because I learned from my mistakes in Chicago — was the way I conducted myself in the media,” he said. “Instead of trying to be combative and argumentative and defensive, I just . . . I think I was chill about it before. But whenever things are falling apart, you never win when you try to fight the media and take on the media.”

His Bears stint prepared him for life on a bigger stage in New York, he said.

“When I made it to Chicago, the thing on me was, ‘Will he stay out of trouble?’ ’’ he said. “The only thing I thought about was proving to everyone I was a good person. There were different challenges that came along with this business.”

Marshall didn’t want to talk about former teammate Jay Cutler, saying that he retired from discussing quarterbacks during a “First Take” appearance a day earlier.

“I’m out of the quarterback department,” he said.

Even the man who wears No. 6?

“There’s a lot of No. 6s in the league,” he said with a smile.

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Email: pfinley@suntimes.com