Jimmy Garoppolo is Suspended Two Games for PEDs. I'm Not So Much Angry as I am Disappointed
Boy oh boy oh boy. The hits just keep right on coming for the NFL's dreamiest active quarterback:
Look, no one cares if an NFL player takes a banned substance. It doesn't matter if he's got an entire Walgreen's inventory running through your circulatory system like a Bob Baffert horse, or just on some script he didn't get approved of. This is pro football. It doesn't matter if you're jacked up like Bane or end up with a third hand growing out of your forehead years from now. We just want you on the field. We want to know you'll score Fantasy points for us or not. As they say, the most important ability is unsuspendedability.
It's as simple as this: Use whatever you have to, just don't get caught. This isn't a moral issue. If it'll win my team games, it would be immoral not to juice, just so long as you use the recommended masking agent. Or in this case, get a permission slip from the league.
Hell, the NFL doesn't want to catch guys. Not stars any way. Not the ones who put eyeballs on TV screens and sell jerseys from NFL Shop. Which is why the earners in the Goodell Crime Family never run afoul of his Pee Patrol. If you're a superstar, they won't ask, you don't tell. And while Jimmy Garoppolo might have spent some time in that protected class, he's no longer a Made Man.
Has there ever been an NFL player who ever seemed so close to climbing to the top of the mountain so many times, only to lose his grip, tumble down the slope and find himself lying on the foothills again and again? It's hard to believe it now, but it was just seven seasons ago that the world was shocked ... SHOCKED!
… to hear he'd been traded from New England to San Francisco for the low, low price of a 2nd round pick.
The season after that, he got hurt. The season after that, he was the savior in San Fran. And had a chance to win them the Super Bowl. But took a sack on 4th down and then threw a pick. The next season, hurt again. Eventually the Niners got sick of waiting for him to finally be all he could be and spent three 1st rounders to replace him with Trey Lance. Even a reunion with Josh McDaniels couldn't spare him from a life of injury and ineffectiveness.
Now he's out two games. And soon $11.25 million, and a job.
I suppose my feeble Patriots brain should default to him signing here and completing his redemption arc. To finally achieve the greatness that was predicted by so many when he filled in for Tom Brady during his suspension in 2016. That is to say, for the six quarters he filled in before - stop me if this sounds familiar - got hurt. But I'm not seeing it. There is literally nobody on the Pats offensive staff that has any connection to Jimmy G from his time here. At this point, he's looking at getting a short term, lowball, Prove It deal. The Patriots are looking for a deliverer to lead them out of the wilderness. A 32 year old who's now in the NFL's crosshairs ain't it.
Sad. Just tremendously sad. This guy was on the verge of becoming one of pro football's true stars, with matinee idol looks and crossover appeal off the charts. As Lorenzo says in A Bronx Tale, "The saddest thing in life is wasted talent."