ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall says standing up for social justice by kneeling during the national anthem before Denvers season opener was worth it even though it cost him an endorsement deal.The Air Academy Federal Credit Union on Friday terminated its five-month-old relationship with Marshall, President and CEO Glenn Strebe said in a Facebook post .AAFCU is a membership-based organization who has proudly served the military community for over 60 years. While we respect Brandons right of expression, his actions are not a representation of our organization and membership. We wish Brandon well on his future endeavors, Strebe wrote.Marshall said the move surprised him but he doesnt regret his actions.Absolutely, theyre worth the consequences, Marshall said. I lost an endorsement. Its OK, though, I figured that some type of repercussion would happen.Marshall said he respects the military, which fought for his freedoms, including the rights of free speech and peaceful protest.People can question my patriotism, but I have the utmost respect for this country, for this land, for the military, Marshall said. Im not against any of those entities at all. As far as my patriotism, that shouldnt be a question because Im just upholding my rights. I can protest peacefully, I can stand or sit. I can say what I feel like saying. Thats what our military has fought for, the ability for everybody to be themselves. So, Im just exercising that right and I will continue to do that.Marshall said some of his detractors suggest he should follow the example set by Pat Tillman, who cut short his NFL career to go to war.They write that Tillman is the ultimate patriot, the ultimate American, Marshall said. Thats what he felt was right. God put that on his heart. That was his calling, what he felt he should do. This is what I feel like. I feel like I should join this movement. But at the same time I should be active as well.He said hell donate time and money to worthy causes such as Wounded Warriors.Marshall, a college teammate and fraternity brother of Colin Kaepernick , took a knee during the playing of the national anthem before Denvers season opener against Carolina on Thursday night.Kaepernick refused to stand for the anthem during San Franciscos preseason games, explaining it was to protest racial oppression and police brutality in the United States.Marshall sounded a similar theme after Denvers 21-20 win.Im not against the military, Im not against America, he said. Im against social injustice.Marshall said Friday that hes gotten a lot of positive feedback but more negative reactions, including some racist remarks on Twitter and Instagram.I had a lot of positive text messages, but as far as social media, I had a lot of racist comments, people calling me the N-word and calling me all kinds of derogatory terms. Theres a lot of hate out there but Im not here to spread hate or negativity.Jets wide receiver Brandon Marshall got some of the tweets meant for the Broncos linebacker.Now he knows what it feels like, Marshall said. Every time he does something or every time hes been in the media for something negative or even something positive, I get all the criticism. All the stuff he says on `Inside the NFL, I get it. Its crazy. So, now he knows what it feels like.Kaepernicks gesture opened a wide debate and focused the microscope on a pregame tradition that has, for decades, been routine.Marshall made no mention of his plans for Thursdays opener, saying he didnt want to take focus away from the teams preparation. But shortly after a large American flag was unfurled, the fifth-year linebacker out of Nevada went to the end of a long row of Broncos and took a knee.Marshall said hes not sure how long hell continue to kneel for the national anthem.Marshall said he asked a team spokesman to help him come up with a strategy for an end-game. He said hes also going to confer with Kaepernick.---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and AP NFL Twitter feed: www.twitter.com/AP-NFL---Follow AP Pro Football Writer Arnie Melendrez Stapleton on Twitter: http://twitter.com/arniestapleton Rollie Fingers Jersey . 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Every bit of NFL front-office history has taught us that you cant go out and fix your problems with one big free-agent offseason. Build through the draft, thats the way to go. Free agency is for augmentation, not foundation building.So no, the New York Giants couldnt have seen this coming. Even after doling out top-dollar deals for three defensive free agents and a generous one-year deal for one of their own, veteran defensive end?Jason Pierre-Paul, the Giants themselves couldnt have known it would turn out like this.You hope so, linebacker Jonathan Casillas said Sunday afternoon, after he and the Giants defense had delivered a second straight stifling victory over an NFC division leader, this time a 17-6 win over the Detroit Lions. You always hope its going to work, when you bring in new guys, but you never know for sure.The Giants didnt know for sure in March, or even in September. But they know now. They know they can win games with defense -- even in a down year for QB?Eli Manning, one in which the offensive game plan increasingly seems to be, Just protect the ball as best you can until Odell Beckham Jr. makes a play.You can spend a good chunk of the NFL season trying to figure out who you are. But by this point, if you want to do big things, you have to know who you are. The Giants know.Our mindset is to stop the opponent, to not let them score, said Landon Collins, the second-year safety whos emerged as a Defensive Player of the Year candidate after a rough rookie season. You obviously want to be one of the top defenses in the league, but our mindset is, Get a stop on third down. Get a stop. Get our offense back on the field in good field position.You can point to the performances of free-agent signings Olivier Vernon, Damon Harrison and Janoris Jenkins?as the reason this defense has jumped from league-worst to good-enough-to-beat-anybody in just one year. And theres some validity there. All three of those guys have played brilliantly, so far justifying the Giants decisions to spend whatever it took to get them.But its more than that, as it must be. The Giants defensive turnaround has to do with Collins being in the right position, and having a season under his belt so his heads not swimming the way it was last season. It has to do with the mindset of someone like Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, the veteran cornerback who lost his job to rookie Eli Apple but stepped in when Jenkins left Sundays game due to injury. It has to do with young, untested defensive linemen like Romeo Okwara and Owa Odighizuwa playing better since Pierre-Paul got hurt.When your number is called, you can either go down or go up, Collins said. And a lot of us have been moving up.This kind of thing feeds on itself, and you can see it inn a Giants defense that held Dallas to seven points a week ago and Detroit to six Sunday.dddddddddddd Manning entered Week 15 ranked 26th in Total QBR and 23rd in yards per attempt, and the Giants still sit at 10-4, one victory away from qualifying for the playoffs for the first time since 2011. They left MetLife Stadium on Sunday afternoon with the knowledge that, if Dallas slips up Sunday night against the Buccaneers, they could still win the NFC East.But the reason for the Giants success is that they havent been distracted by big-picture stuff. Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, himself a coaching reclamation project after presiding over defenses that set records for futility in New Orleans and previously with the Giants, has found a way to keep his charges focused on and dedicated to their individual jobs from play to play and week to week.Weve got a lot of guys at their positions being asked to win one-on-one battles, and were winning them, Casillas said. [WR]?Golden Tate had a day today, and that happens sometimes, but the good thing was it was only him. We basically bottled up everybody else.Tate had 122 yards from scrimmage. No other Lion had more than 52. QB?Matthew Stafford, the king of the fourth-quarter comeback this season, threw for a pedestrian 273 yards on 24-for-39 passing?with an interception. The run-challenged Lions managed 56 rushing yards on 19 carries. Down four points in the fourth quarter, a team that has come back to win in eight of its nine victories this season instead saw its deficit grow thanks to big-play Beckham, who one-handed the game-sealing touchdown.We just have a relentless mentality, Rodgers-Cromartie said. Nobody wants to be the guy who goes out and lets down the team. Thats the way were going right now, and thats special.The Giants defense, long an Achilles heel, has a special feel to it. Playing without Pierre-Paul the past two weeks and now facing the possibility of playing without Jenkins, who injured his back and has only?three days to recover before the Thursday night game in Philadelphia, they seem convinced they can deliver.It wasnt supposed to be like this. The Giants were supposed to have an explosive offense and hope the defense could just rise from the back of the pack to the middle. Instead, theyre in December and the defense is carrying the offense. Theyll take it. Its an NFL era in which championships can once again be won with defense, as the 2015 Broncos proved. And while this years Giants have a long way to go before they can compare themselves to that group, theyre in a position now where they dont wonder whether they can stop anybody when it matters. They know they can. ' ' '