Packers defense will miss Jolly
Defense will miss Jolly's big talent and big energy
The regular season doesn’t start for another two months, but the Packers have already suffered a significant loss. The NFL on Friday suspended Johnny Jolly indefinitely for violating the league’s substance abuse policy. The veteran defensive end will not play in 2010. The exact cause of the lengthy suspension is not yet known. What is known, however, is that stopping opposing offenses has just gotten more difficult.
Jolly wasn’t always the most disciplined player in the world, but his unique blend of size, strength and athleticism made him extremely difficult to handle at the point of attack. And while the former Texas A&M star offered little as a pass rusher, he was as good as anyone at batting balls down at the line of scrimmage. He also brought a tremendous amount of unbridled enthusiasm to the huddle – something that shouldn’t be overlooked.
Ryan Pickett will likely open the season as Jolly’s replacement, but you can bet the coaches are keeping their fingers crossed that either oft-injured veteran Justin Harrell or one of the rookies emerge during camp. That’s because Pickett simply isn’t built to play outside in a 3-4. The proud veteran won’t embarrass himself at the position, but the end result will probably be very similar to what B.J. Raji provided last season.
So what’s Jolly’s future with the Packers? Here’s the statement issued by GM Ted Thompson following the league’s announcement:
“Johnny is a good player that loves everything about the game of football. We appreciate the contributions he has made to the Packers the past four seasons. His focus and priorities now lie elsewhere – our thoughts are with him during this difficult personal time.”
Our take? Thanks and best of luck, but you ain’t coming back here. And it’s too bad. Jolly is a very solid player and an excellent teammate who likely derailed a promising and lucrative professional career due to outright stupidity. He isn’t the first athlete to do that, and unfortunately, he won’t be the last.
Cant say i am surprised. He screwed up and now he will pay the price. This however is a great opportunity for other emerging players. I am excited to see what Neal, Wilson, and Wynn can bring to our defense.
Does the “league’s substance abuse policy” refer only to using drugs, or to allegedly trafficking them as well?
Normally, a positive drug test is dealt with by an initial 4 game suspension and penalties get stiffer from there, right?
I mean Big Ben allegedly sexually assaulted some people and got less than this. So we are to assume there is some relatively serious wrongdoing behind this, correct?
What it means is that he had already had 2 offenses in the leagues substance abuse policy! FIrst offense has counceling I believe. 2nd is an automatic 4 game suspension. 3rd offense is one year…
Apparently the Packers have been keeping a tight lid, since he wasn’t known by the public to be one strike from a year suspension!
Yeah if he had 2 previous offenses, he’d have been suspended before. This is his first suspension and it’s pretty severe.
There’s more to this suspension than what we have read about so far. Jolly did something that really PO the League’s abuse policy.
The Journal Sentinel has a story on how Jolly could be suspended indefinitely even though he hadn’t been suspended previously. We have a link to the story in our News & Notes section on the front page.