Julian Edelman Makes Comments On PED Suspension

Patriots receiver Julian Edelman had a rough season. He returned from a season-ending ACL tear in 2017, and was awesome in 2018. Edelman was brilliant in the postseason, and was named Super Bowl MVP. But, Edelman also earned a PED suspension.

The PED suspension was probably his only low this year. He missed the first four games of the regular season.

“After going through this whole year,” Edelman told Peter King, “these last 24 months of my life have been a roller coaster. You go out and you tear an ACL. Then all of a sudden you have a suspension that you’re facing. A lot of things go down and then you end up … a huge low of your life. Because football is life. That’s what people don’t understand with me. This is what I am. This is what I was put here to do. This is what I sacrificed all my time for—my friends, my family, everything like that … And then when you’re told you can’t play football for four weeks because of something that happened that you really can’t get into because you really don’t know what happened, it’s tough. You learn a lot from that.

“When that happened, I had a strong corner behind me. My father and I kind of just sat back and said, All right, we have a problem here. What’s this problem? Let’s make sure this never happens again. Let’s own up to it. Let’s take your penalty like a man, regardless of the circumstances.’ … From this whole thing, I’ve learned that you’ve just got to stay in your routine, and you’ve just got to work your way out of it. People don’t know what happened. I can’t sit here and [due to] the league rules say what happened.”

The PED suspension is a sore spot

When asked if the suspension was unjust, Edelman did not say much.

“I’m not going down that road,” the receiver said. “I served what I had to serve and I accept that. I know a lot of people were disappointed in me for it. I apologize. It’ll never happen again.”