A Jolly good fool

[Fritz]

[quote="Joemailman"]Johnny Jolly has been excused from next week's mandatory minicamp.

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/96521569.html

McCarthy confirmed Johnny Jolly signed his tender, but he has been excused from next week's mandatory mini-camp. "I have excused Johnny from mini-camp next week," McCarthy said. "We feel it's important for him to concentrate on his legal situation. There's a lot going on, and he needs to focus and make sure he has everything in line. These decisions that are going to be made legally will affect every aspect of his life, most importantly his personal life and then his professional life."

Actually, I suspect MM doesn't want the distraction associated with Jolly's situation at the minicamp. Besides, it makes sense to give guys like Neal as many reps as possible since there's a good chance Jolly won't be available at the start of the season.[/quote]

I wonder if this is the underlying reason. Given Jolly's uncertain availability, why not let Neal and that other pick suck up a lot of reps, to get them familiar and see what they can do? You already know what Jolly can do. Let him stay away for that reason.

The stated reason I don't get. You don't go to trial for three more weeks or so, so why is that a distraction for Jolly? It's been postponed a million times already.

[get louder at lambeau]

Johnny Jolly has been excused from next week's mandatory minicamp.

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/96521569.html

McCarthy confirmed Johnny Jolly signed his tender, but he has been excused from next week's mandatory mini-camp. "I have excused Johnny from mini-camp next week," McCarthy said. "We feel it's important for him to concentrate on his legal situation. There's a lot going on, and he needs to focus and make sure he has everything in line. These decisions that are going to be made legally will affect every aspect of his life, most importantly his personal life and then his professional life."

Actually, I suspect MM doesn't want the distraction associated with Jolly's situation at the minicamp. Besides, it makes sense to give guys like Neal as many reps as possible since there's a good chance Jolly won't be available at the start of the season.

I wonder if this is the underlying reason. Given Jolly's uncertain availability, why not let Neal and that other pick suck up a lot of reps, to get them familiar and see what they can do? You already know what Jolly can do. Let him stay away for that reason.

The stated reason I don't get. You don't go to trial for three more weeks or so, so why is that a distraction for Jolly? It's been postponed a million times already.

Not only Neal and the other young guys, but also Ryan Pickett. He may well be the starter on the left side now that they moved Raji inside.

[pbmax]

The prosecutor has indicated he will use the incarcerated man's testimony to impeach Jolly, should he or the defense team make a claim that the DA thinks can be rebutted by their witness.

I'm not familiar with the meaning of the word "impeach" in that context. Does it just mean that if Jolly goes on the stand and testifies, that the prosecutor may call the witness to give a rebuttal that Jolly is lying?

It means to call into question. In this specific context, the Prosecutor may not be able to call the inmate as a witness as he had no direct bearing on the case (he was in jail at the time, I think). But if Jolly says something like "I never have had any dealings with codeine laced soft drinks..." then the inmate could be called to impeach Jolly's truthfulness on that issue.