Patriots defensive back Alfonzo Dennard is now waiting to learn his punishment after his felony conviction for assaulting a police officer, but it's beginning to seem that the news may not be as grim as it initially appeared.
 The news appears to be better than first thought regarding Alfonzo Dennard's upcoming sentencing. (FILE:USPresswire) |
Dennard, who will be sentenced on April 11th, is a first-time offender who is gainfully employed and to a certain extent has already suffered some punishment. Greg Bedard points out in his Sunday notes that Dennard had already suffered by losing $1 million from dropping in the draft and the likelihood of receiving a long sentence seems unlikely.
According to Bedard two people with knowledge of Dennard's case expect him to receive somewhere in the ballpark of three months. Depending on when that starts, it's possible that the Patriots could in fact have him in house by the start of the season.
The next question that's come up has been whether or not he'll face any punishment by the league. The interesting thing that Bedard points out is that since the incident happened before Dennard was an NFL player, he wasn't covered by the collective bargaining agreement. As a result it seems that scenario may end up being unlikely and if Roger Goodell attempts to suspend Bedard, there will likely be a legal fight with the NFLPA.
For now we'll have to wait and see what punishment he'll face, but it appears that if nothing else the Patriots apparently may not have to figure out how to potentially replace him. That's good news considering they have enough holes to focus on for a season which starts a little less than seven months from now.
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