C.J. Spiller was absent at Monday's practice, but with good reason. The Bills tailback was tending to his grieving and undoubtedly bewildered family following the tragic passing of his grandfather, who is the subject of an alleged shooting incident over the weekend.
"I talked to him when we landed from the Washington game and I excused him to be able to go back (home) and handle his personal situation," said Marrone. "I don't have anything more to report than really what I said before as far as what has been in the paper. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims as well as C.J. and his family."
Marrone said he's made sure to keep in contact with Spiller to see how he's doing.
"We're in communication," he said. "I don't have any idea as to when he's going to come back, but we're in communication to make sure we're there to support him that he's doing well and obviously we're monitoring when he needs to come back. But we want to make sure that he's able to handle what he needs to handle."
Fellow running back Fred Jackson also reached out to Spiller to offer support.
"I talked to him yesterday. It's still kind of surreal for him," said Jackson. "The more he's down there the more real it will become for him. Knowing he's got to deal with that all we can do as teammates is be there for him and let him know that we have his back for anything we need to do for him."
Marrone chose not to describe how Spiller was feeling in his conversations with the star running back.
"I think you can describe his mood by putting all of us in that situation," he said. "I think if we all did that we all kind of can figure out the type of person that C.J. is and how he must feel."
