Thanks to our friends over at Mile High Report, it was posted over in the FanPosts earlier today that Sirius NFL Radio was reporting that Bryant McKinnie would be suspended for the first four games of the 2008 season by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
(Man, check out THAT run-on sentence.)
I can't confirm whether or not anything was said there or not, largely because I don't have Sirius. (I'm an XM man, myself.) But McKinnie was apparently asked about it today as the Vikings wrapped up Training Camp.
Vikings left tackle Bryant McKinnie had little reaction this afternoon to a report by Sirius NFL Radio that he is likely to be suspended for four games for violating the league’s personal conduct policy.
“I don’t know about that,” McKinnie said as he walked off the practice field. McKinnie is subject to possible disciplinary action by the NFL as a repeat offender of the league’s conduct policy. He met with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in early June.
Now, we know that Roger Goodell is a jerk. . .look no further than his handling of the Brett Favre/Packers saga for proof of that. But I find it hard to believe that even he would tell Sirius NFL Radio that McKinnie was going to be suspended before he told someone like. . .I don't know. . .Bryant McKinnie, maybe. The end of the Star-Tribune's post linked above does contain an update which, in a nutshell, says that the folks at Sirius are full of crap and that the league hasn't made any sort of decision yet.
McKinnie's case hasn't even gone to trial yet. Who on earth suspends a guy BEFORE their trial? I mean, if the suspension gets handed down now and McKinnie is cleared, the NFL would look really silly, wouldn't they?
This isn't to say that McKinnie WON'T get suspended at some point, but as of now, he has not been. His next trial date is set for 24 September, and there's really no reason to think that anything would happen before then.