Larry Fitzgerald Wouldn't Mind If Tom Brady's Suspension Stuck
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- The odds remain strongly against Tom Brady being able to win his appeal and/or be granted a stay of suspension that would allow him to play the entire 2016 season without having to serve the four-game ban issued upon him by the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell.
But, with Tom Brady being Tom Brady, nobody's really willing to officially count him out just yet.
And aside from Brady and the Patriots, the group of folks perhaps most invested in the outcome of Brady's appeal process would be the Arizona Cardinals, who are the Patriots' Week 1 opponents.
The Cardinals enter the 2016 season feeling pretty good about themselves, following a 13-3 season and a memorable playoff comeback win over the Packers prior to an epic flop against the Panthers in the NFC Championship Game. They'll likely be using that playoff loss as motivation to be great in 2016, and most of the players seem to prefer seeing Brady out there on opening night instead of Jimmy Garoppolo.
Well, all except Larry Fitzgerald.
"Come on, man, I think that's a pretty easy question to answer," Fitzgerald told Kent Somers of The Arizona Republic when asked if he was hoping to see Brady in uniform in Week 1. "I love Tom, that's my man. But if he doesn't play, I wouldn't shed any tears. I'd love to see him back the next week, though."
Veteran running back Chris Johnson told Somers the same thing: "He can come back for the second game."
It's worth noting that the defensive players asked about who they want to see at QB for New England all said Brady, as most of them have never faced him in their careers. But a major part of that might be the players' inclination to "say the right thing."
Credit to Larry Fitz and Chris Johnson for keeping it real.