GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Their infractions were different but the end result the same: Demetri Goodson and Mike Pennel will miss the first four games of the regular season because of positive drug tests.
Goodson’s suspension fell under the performance-enhancing drug policy, while Pennel got nailed for a substance-abuse violation. Although neither one would reveal exactly what they took to trigger the positive tests, both claimed they have learned valuable -- but costly -- lessons.
“Follow the rules,” Pennel said last week after an OTA practice.
“You’ve just got to be careful of what you take and all that stuff,” Goodson said last week. “It wasn’t anything that could help me on the field or anything like that.”
For the second straight season, the Green Bay Packers will open the year with a pair of suspended defensive players. Last year, they were without linemen Datone Jones (one game) and Letroy Guion (three games). The Packers stood by both players, giving them their roster spots back after their suspensions expired. However, both had more going for them than Goodson and Pennel. Jones was the Packers’ first-round pick just two years earlier, while Guion signed a new contract even though the team knew a suspension was likely.
Goodson and Pennel have far less leverage. Goodson played just 72 defensive snaps (second-fewest among Packers cornerbacks) last season, while Pennel was on the field for 314 (26.5 percent of the defensive snaps). Goodson, a sixth-round pick in 2014, showed more value on special teams. He was on the field for 228 special-teams plays, eighth-most on the team.
“I’m not worried about the roster battles and stuff like that,” Goodson said. “I just come in to work every day and work hard. I feel like everything else will just fall into place. I don’t really worry about making the roster. I never do that. I just feel like everybody here knows me, knows I’m a very good person. I didn’t do anything on purpose to cause this to happen, but it still happened. Just take the good with the bad and just keep on moving on to be ready to play when my time comes again.
“What happened was I didn’t do anything on purpose. The thing that happened, it wasn’t anything that could help me on the field. It wasn’t anything like that. All the coaches know what happened. I just want to say I’m sorry to all the fans, just my mom and dad, everybody that loves me and everything. I just want to say sorry for doing something -- I didn’t mean to do it, but it still happened. I’ve just got to learn from it and come back ready to play after my four games off. Just try not to look in the past about it, try to move on from it as fast as I can.”
At least Goodson can say the Packers didn’t draft anyone at his position.
Pennel wasn’t so fortunate. The former undrafted free agent watched general manager Ted Thompson select a pair of defensive linemen -- Kenny Clark (first round) and Dean Lowry (fourth round).
“I didn’t look at it from that aspect,” Pennel said. “I look at it from, ‘Well, as a free agent, every free year it doesn’t matter what you do last year, you’ve got to make the team.’ So coming in like this, I knew we were going to have to draft a guy who’s prepared to make the roster.”