Julian Edelman,The MVP And PED”s

By Jack Healey
Nick Cafardo’s baseball column in the Boston Globe on Super Sunday started off ironically enough about the difference between PED’s in the NFL and PED’s in baseball. Carfardo writes:
” Serving a suspension or being linked to it in baseball seems like a major crime among some fans. In football? No biggie. That was borne out so vividly the past couple of weeks when there were stories debating the Hall of Fame worthiness of Julian Edelman based on his post season prowess.”
Of course Edelman went on to win the Super Bowl MVP and even though PED’s are almost never discussed in the NFL, of course it was this time because guess what? It involved the Patriots!
It was coincidence that Cafardo wrote about it before the game, but there were many stories including some baseball writers that wrote after the game that if football was baseball Edelman wouldn’t have been playing in the Super Bowl because he was popped last summer and was suspended for four games.
There is a difference between the NFL and baseball when it comes to PED’s and I’ve talked about it for years. The following is what I wrote in this blog on June 8th, 2018 after the Edelman suspension and it hit the nail right on the head:
“Let me start out with Julian Edelman of the Patriots who will be suspended four games for PED use pending appeal. Let me make it clear that any punishment is fair and he will probably use the same excuses everybody makes like I didn’t know where it came from, it was a vitamin, blah, blah,blah!
All that being said, let me repeat what I’ve been saying for years and that is I don’t think it’s as big a deal as it is in baseball. I’m not condoning it, but I’ve always said if the offensive player is doing it and the defensive player is doing it then so what? I’m not talking about the health implications, I’m talking about the competition. In baseball, it’s about the records etc. and that will be debated for years to come so it’s a little different in that sport.
And to fans who are getting all giddy because it’s the Patriots and there they go cheating again. Not so fast! If you are then you are a hypocrite! There are PED suspensions all over the place in the NFL. Every team in the league has had players suspended for PED’s. The Giants have at least one player on suspension right now. Newly acquired defensive end Josh Mauro got popped just last week. Edelman isn’t the first Patriot to get popped either.Remember Rob Ninkovitch a couple of years ago and Rodney Harrison sometime ago?
As I said it happens all the time! Here are a few more players who have been suspended four games or more for PED use over the years:
The Jets’ Jeremy Kerley who by the way had the best excuse or the worst excuse ever. He said “a ghost did it.”
The Bears’ and former Jet Mark Sanchez. Former Jet Austin Seferian Jenkins. The Chargers’ Antonio Gates. The Giants’ Akeem Ayers. Denver’s Von Miller. Remember the Eagles’ big mouth Lane Johnson? He’s been in the news a lot lately because of his comments about the Patriots not having any fun. Johnson has been suspended twice so he’s a repeat offender.
The list goes on and on and it doesn’t even include suspensions for other reasons. So before you point your finger at Edelman and the Patriots take a look at your own team. You might not like what you see. I saw a Rams fan jumping on the bandwagon about Edelman on facebook.I had to laugh as the Rams had two players who were suspended at the start of last year for PED use. Hypocrites!!!!
By the way Richard Sherman then of Seattle and Wes Welker then of Denver were both suspended for PED’s, but won their appeals. That of course is rare, but let’s see what happens with Edelman.”
Remember I wrote this back in June. Yea I think I hit the nail right on the head.