Jolly Suspended Indefinitely

[sharpe1027]

Lori Nickel offers this helpful tidbit in the JSO Packer Blog.

Lori Nickel-JSO[/b]]The usual progression for such a suspension is four games, then eight for the next violation and then the season, but it is possible Jolly had such violations and they never became public.

Yes, Lori. Jolly had previously been suspended for a total of twelve games. But no one noticed.

Plus, I think she has this wrong. The third failure/second suspension should be for a year, shouldn't it?

Maybe the NFL made him take three tests on consecutive days and counted them as separate violations. Haha.

[Patler]

I believe the policy states that the first suspension is a minimum of 4 games, the second a minimum of 8, the third a minimum of 12 months. Nothing says the first can't be more, depending on circumstances.

I find the timing of this rather peculiar. It has been dragging on forever, and now two weeks before the trial is to start, the NFL comes down with their suspension. Why not earlier? Why not wait until after the trial when they waited this long?

[Lurker64]

My guess, Jolly failed a drug test for more than three different banned substances at the same time.

He was on Steroids, Purple Drank, Crack Cocaine, HGH, Heroin, Meth, and Horse Tranquilizers at the same time. Unfortunately, he was tested the day after one HELL of a party.

[red]

i bet a failed drug test triggered a suspension, minimum 4 or 8 games. then goodell just said screw it, i'm gonna drop the hammer on you right now for all this other crap while i'm at it.

jolly at the very least seems to be hanging around with a very shitty crowd. odds are if his friends are around the shit and sell it, then he has his hands in it as well

him failing a drug test with all these other accusations over his head is just the straw that breaks the camels back. and just plain stupid

[wist43]

This definitely hurts our defense... he was our best DL last year.

[digitaldean]

Even though it hurts us on the d-line, I am glad they did it.

When others did similar stupid things, I've railed on them and was glad when they were suspended. Same goes for Johnny Jolly. This idiot can hopefully get his life in order to prepare for his return OR get ready for some hard time in the slammer.

There had to be a reason why Neal and Wilson were drafted than just to add depth.

Somehow I think TT and M3 had a gut feeling this was coming.

[Kiwon]

Drugs are so cool, man.

How much money is he going to lose now?

[Guiness]

very odd - 'socially' he was pretty quiet - didn't make a lot of news until this bust during his time in GB. And I did like him as a player. Certainly wasn't a pacman or even on a lesser scale, Cedric Benson type guy who seemed to always be having run-ins.

Everyone laughed at the fact he was changed with having 25 grams of codein, said the cop obviously screwed up because 25 grams was a trunk full, not a glass full.

Maybe it turns out he did have a trunk full!!!

[mission]

Rape a girl, get 6 games.

Sell and do some drugs: end of your career. The amount or scope of any of this really shouldn't matter. You either do/sell or you aren't.

Not that I really even want an idiot on the Packers who cares more about his crew and selling bricks than he does about being a better football player. Just seems like there are discrepancies in the NFL's disciplinary program.

I'm not too shook up -- what a fkn moron. He could have made so much more money without having to try and "make more money".

Makes TT look even better now... he must have had some sort of magic 8ball to see this coming.

[Iron Mike]

This definitely hurts our defense... he was our best DL last year.

Too bad we're not in Minnesota.....then he could be suspended indefinitely and STILL play for a few more years.

[ThunderDan]

It seems like a harsh penalty to drop the hammer for a season right away. I am sure Jolly must have been financing some sort of drug ring for his friends. Who knows for sure.

If he has those kind of issues I have no problem with the league suspending him. Sucks as a Packer fan for results on the field but I can live with our player being an idiot and getting punished for it.

Where is that MNGolf poster getting all into a lather that Jolly has never been convicetd of anything and the NFL is suspending him? Wait the Williams boys did break the banned substances rules! I am so confused!

[Joemailman]

Even though it hurts us on the d-line, I am glad they did it.

When others did similar stupid things, I've railed on them and was glad when they were suspended. Same goes for Johnny Jolly. This idiot can hopefully get his life in order to prepare for his return OR get ready for some hard time in the slammer.

There had to be a reason why Neal and Wilson were drafted than just to add depth.

Somehow I think TT and M3 had a gut feeling this was coming.

I'm not sure that Jolly's legal situation had that much to do with the draft. Jolly and Jenkins were both entering the final years of their contracts. There had been talk previously that the Packers might part ways with Jolly, so this might have been his last year with the Packers anyway.

[DonHutson]

This is for violating the substance abuse policy, so I'm pretty sure that implies failed drug tests. It's pretty cut and dried, x number of violations = y number of games suspended.

Anything related to his upcoming trial would be under the personal conduct policy. That's the tool Goodell uses to take players behind the woodshed, and it's fairly arbitrary. Presumably then, there would another personal conduct penalty down the road on top of this suspension.

Jason Wilde talked about Jolly on Homer's show this afternoon. He seemed to think he either failed multiple tests this off-season or he may have failed one last year that was being appealed and then another in the off-season. Wilde felt sure the Packers knew this was coming, (hence the Neal pick and hence the Pickett move to DE, not to mention Jolly's unvitation to minicamp) and he added that they've been concerned about his character from the moment they drafted him.

Based on that there was no way he was coming back next year anyway. Ted's not giving a big bonus to a headcase like that.

I can't imagine why they wouldn't just cut him now. Let the trial headlines be about 'former-Packer Johnny Jolly.' That has a much better ring to it.

[red]

This is for violating the substance abuse policy, so I'm pretty sure that implies failed drug tests. It's pretty cut and dried, x number of violations = y number of games suspended.

Anything related to his upcoming trial would be under the personal conduct policy. That's the tool Goodell uses to take players behind the woodshed, and it's fairly arbitrary. Presumably then, there would another personal conduct penalty down the road on top of this suspension.

Jason Wilde talked about Jolly on Homer's show this afternoon. He seemed to think he either failed multiple tests this off-season or he may have failed one last year that was being appealed and then another in the off-season. Wilde felt sure the Packers knew this was coming, (hence the Neal pick and hence the Pickett move to DE, not to mention Jolly's unvitation to minicamp) and he added that they've been concerned about his character from the moment they drafted him.

Based on that there was no way he was coming back next year anyway. Ted's not giving a big bonus to a headcase like that.

I can't imagine why they wouldn't just cut him now. Let the trial headlines be about 'former-Packer Johnny Jolly.' That has a much better ring to it.

it thats the case then his career is probably over, what an absolute waste

if they cut him now would they owe him money? if they wait until after he is(if he is) convicted, then they can cut him without having to pay him a dime (conduct detrimental to the team)

[Lurker64]

I can't imagine why they wouldn't just cut him now. Let the trial headlines be about 'former-Packer Johnny Jolly.' That has a much better ring to it.

I'm pretty sure they won't cut him because they can't. A suspended player is moved to the Reserve-Suspended list automatically, and IIRC you can't cut people on that list. It's entirely possible that they will cut him the instant he is removed from that list, but if they were going to do that they could have always pulled the tender. I think Ted's willing to try to get that 1 RFA year he's owed from Jolly, and then cut the line.

The positive side of this is that the Packers don't owe Jolly a dime while he's suspended, and he doesn't accrue any years of service while he's suspended. So likely when he gets off suspension, if he's not in jail, the Packers will have the option of paying him the RFA tender and keeping him for a year, or just cutting him.