Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer had a conference call with New England media on Wednesday to discuss Sunday night’s opener against the Patriots and he was asked about a Patriots player who will be missing from the game because of a suspension.
No, it wasn’t defensive end Rob Ninkovich.
The questions were about Tom Brady and Palmer’s feelings about the way things went for Brady after the league’s investigation into ball pressure in the 2015 AFC title game found he was “generally aware” of a scheme to deflate footballs.
“I tried not to follow it just because it was everywhere for so long but I go back and … you follow what the rule book says and go about your business and your work and if they tell you not to do it and you get busted and what happens happens then you suffer the consequences,” Palmer said, via Tom Curran of CSN New England.
Palmer went on to say that he was sure people in New England felt otherwise, but “a lot of players around the league just looking at it, I don’t know if you can feel too strongly about it one way or the other.” Curran followed up to ask if his opinion differed from those in New England who feel that the league didn’t prove anything.
“To be honest … there was … supposedly the balls went somewhere and they weren’t supposed to go there,” Palmer said. “There was humidity and not enough humidity and whatever it was and altitude. I don’t really know. I didn’t follow the story. As soon as it came on I just turned it off because I was so sick of hearing about it. Whatever the league comes down upon and whatever ruling they make is what they make. You don’t have much of a decision after that and you can fight it for a little bit but after a while, you just gotta abide by what they say.”
There’s some rambling there, but the takeaway isn’t an overly sympathetic view of Brady’s lot over the last couple of years. That’s unlikely to make Palmer too popular in New England, but there probably weren’t too many warm feelings about the opposing quarterback this week anyway.