If someone told you last year Tom Brady and Rob Ninkovich would miss a quarter of the 2016 New England Patriots’s season, how would you react? Yeah, I can see why you’d cry for sure. But that’s just the reality of the situation now.
As if Brady’s suspension for deflategate wasn’t bad enough, the league has the audacity to suspend Ninkovich for taking performance enhancing drugs? Wow. That’s straight ridiculous. Witch hunt against the Patriots. Actually, in this situation, the league is right.
Say what you will about the league and their relationship with the Patriots, but this isn’t a good look. Can’t blame them for suspending a PED user but for the Patriots, the timing of the suspension isn’t great — and it is made worse by who received the suspension.
Right now, the Patriots are without a Pro Bowl defender and a Pro Bowl offensive player — due to suspensions. That’s not good.
If you think about it though, it’s not so bad. It’s only the first four games of the season. Someone asked me if the Patriots were “screwed” because of Brady’s suspension. My response: well, think about how bad the AFC East is any given year and think about how Brady will be playing in the last 12 games of the regular season plus the postseason. The same thing could be said about Ninkovich now too. These guys ain’t going to cost the Patriots their season. But it just makes them a little tougher to watch the first four weeks of the season.
For real though, I sincerely doubt anyone is not going to watch the Patriots because Rob Ninkovich isn’t playing — like some might with Tom Brady. He’s a key player, but it’s not going to disrupt the season. It’s just bad PR. And the Patriots could use more of that — not.