Football is a physical game. No one is 100% healthy halfway through the season.
That's far from ideal, but injuries and pain are just a part of the game. Most NFL players just deal with it and do their best to try and help their teams win.
Needless to say, that means they also expect their teammates to have the same mindset and do whatever it takes to end up on top, especially on a team-first franchise such as the New England Patriots.
That's why Martellus Bennett was so angry at Jimmy Garoppolo during the 2016 season.
With Tom Brady suspended, Jimmy G took over as the starting QB. He suffered a minor injury, so Jacoby Brissett had to step up and got hurt really bad. Garoppolo was supposed to start the next game but backed out at the last second, forcing Brissett to play through a ligament injury, which didn't sit well in the locker room:
“Bro, we lost two games (without Brady),” Bennett said on the 'I Am Athlete' podcast. “One of them was because Jimmy Garoppolo was being a b*tch. He quit before, decided not to play right before the game. Jacoby (Brissett) came out and played with a f*cked-up thumb and played his heart out, but Jimmy was just being a b*tch about it all.”
Patriots legend Julian Edelman doubled down on Bennett's take. Brissett risked his career to grind their way to a win, and the healthier Garoppolo simply bailed out on them:
“I mean, I don’t know we’re all football players here,” Edelman said, per NESN. “So we go into Week 4 and Jimmy was practicing and then decided not to play. Jacoby played with no ligaments in his thumb, which you can’t do that as a quarterback."
Pats players didn't care for Garoppolo's attitude, Edelman included. They knew that they had to make sacrifices if they wanted to win:
“A lot of guys got mad at it. I’m not going to lie, I got mad about it,” Edelman added. “I sacrificed my body all day long. I was taking shots for this, numbing up that, ribs, broken ribs, shoulders, Grade 3 hanging on by limbs just to play. I can understand why Marty (Bennett) thinks like that.”
Looking back, Edelman is satisfied with how his career panned out. Still, he took a slight shot at Jimmy G for how he handled his:
“You also have to look, hey, [Garoppolo] got paid $30 million,” concluded Edelman. “So maybe I’m the dumb guy who didn’t make as much money to sacrifice for that team. I guess I played for the memories, not the money.”
That's definitely not a good look for the Niners' QB, especially now that he's looking to find a trade.
