FOXBORO -- Carson Palmer was a gold mine of information during a conference call with New England media Wednesday afternoon.
Informative, insightful and willing to answer every question during a 15-minute session.
The only time Palmer slipped from highly articulate to a little bit tongue-tied was when he was asked about Tom Brady’s suspension. Palmer, the Cardinals quarterback, tried to tightrope between saying how he really feels and being wary of causing a major poopstorm. Suffice to say, 1) he has little sympathy for Brady and 2) he probably caused a poopstorm.
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Asked by Jeff Howe of The Boston Herald how he felt about Brady’s treatment, Palmer said, “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.
“I’m sure you guys look at it a lot differently but I know a lot of players around the league just looking at it . . . ” and here Palmer stopped and seemed to veer away from saying most players agreed with him and concluded saying, “I don’t know if you can feel too strongly about it one way or the other.”
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New England Patriots
I said that, around New England, the feeling is the league didn’t prove anything. Asked if he felt differently, Palmer said, “To be honest … there was … supposedly the balls went somewhere and they weren’t supposed to go there. 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,” Palmer said. “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.”
That Palmer will be facing off with Jimmy Garoppolo instead of Tom Brady Sunday night can’t be bad news for him. But it will be interesting if -- come February -- the two veteran quarterbacks’ paths end up crossing in Houston.