Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman‘s appeal of his four-game suspension has failed, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
Edelman was suspended in early June following a violation of the NFL’s performance-enhancing drug policy, and his appeal was heard last Monday. NFL bans aren’t often overturned, so the fact that Edelman will be forced to serve his four-game suspension isn’t particularly surprising, although there was at least some mystery regarding Edelman’s failed test. Edelman, for his part, was expected to argue the league mishandled the documentation and delivery of his sample.
Edelman will miss contests against the Texans, Jaguars, Lions, and Dolphins as the Patriots complete the first quarter of their season, and his absence could give other New England wideouts a chance to produce, or even a better shot at making the club’s initial roster. Kenny Britt, Jordan Matthews, Chris Hogan, Cordarrelle Patterson, Matt Slater, and Braxton Berrios are among the options that will be at Tom Brady‘s disposal while Edelman is sidelined.
Over his past four healthy seasons, Edelman has averaged 133 targets, 89 receptions, 956 yards, and five touchdowns per year. He was a major part of the Super Bowl-winning Patriots squad in 2016, hauling in 98 catches for a career-high 1,106 yards. However, the 32-year-old Edelman hasn’t been on the field for more than a year, as a torn ACL ended his 2017 campaign before it began.
Color me shocked. As if Herr Goodell would overturn anything, especially against the best franchise in the league!!!
*the best franchise in the league in the Foxboro area only.
Haters love to hate. Must suck being a Texans fan or worse cowboys seeing them fall from grace. Mr madmanTX
They’ve been the best franchise in professional American sports for the past 20 years
Best at cheating for sure!!!! lol
One wonders if he was on another team if this would have played out the same way… but, regardless.
I do hope to hear more about what exactly he popped positive for. But, I have no reason to believe what he or the NFL says. So, I’m just gonna earmark him for a late steal in this coming fantasy draft.
These suspensions are fairly common in the NFL. There goes probably $50,000 to $100,000 in legal fees down the tubes.
Did he really expect the Ryan Braun “I didn’t do it, the sample was tainted by the handler” defense to be successful?
To remove some doubt (hopefully), sports leagues need to do a better job keeping results under wraps, and getting an immediate second test to either confirm or refute the original results.
And if it takes more than 3 days from the time the sample cup is filled til the test is complete, the whole process needs to be reexamined.
The Braun thing was a little different because he went after the guy who had the sample and tried to destroy him as a professional and a person just to protect his lie.
And keeping results under wraps is impossible based on the law of “I Know Something You Don’t Know…” that dictates the inevitability of secrets being spilled is in direct relation to the number of those in the know. And it’s a long chain from the sample to the result.
Yeah, I know they’re not exactly the same. My point was they both basically tried blaming someone else.
I do believe the process from test to collection to delivery to the lab to results to informing the player (and subsequent confirmation Re-testing) can and should be dramatically improved and sped up. These leagues have plenty of money to have a private lab handle everything, with complete confidentiality.
You can isolate the lab, but there will be a lot of watchmen and watchers watching the watchmen. All kept in the loop as to who popped positive for what and the due discipline.
My point is the NFL has so many moving parts and so much politics that it is virtually impossible to keep anything confidential. And plenty who want to have information come out for a litany of reasons. Just another case of the NFL having too many cooks in the kitchen.
But that guy DID “mishandle” Braun’s sample. A happy accident that just didn’t work out for Braun…..
No Fun League Don’t Make No Mistakes…..