Eagles LB Nigel Bradham says suspension could have been much worse
The linebacker initially thought he had dodged a league suspension. He will end up missing this season's opener.
Eagles linebacker Nigel Bradham thought he was in the clear, as the two-year anniversary of his altercation with a Miami Beach hotel worker neared, but this was not the case.
Bradham, who accepted a deferred prosecution program after being charged with assault, received word this summer that he would be suspended six games under the NFL's personal conduct policy, Bradham told reporter John McMullen of 97.3 ESPN, after the Eagles' first training-camp practice Thursday at the NovaCare Complex. Bradham said he appealed and got the suspension reduced to the one-game sanction that the league announced last month. Bradham, 28, will miss the season opener against Atlanta.
Earlier, Bradham told reporters: "I definitely was surprised by it. I wasn't expecting it, for sure. But it is what it is. I definitely thought it was over. Everything was handled on the [legal] side. So I definitely thought it was over. Obviously not, man. But I got to continue to focus on me and get ready for Week 2."
Linebacker might be the position at which the Eagles have the least proven depth. A six-game suspension for Bradham, a starter and a standout since he arrived in free agency in 2016, could have been a calamity for an Eagles team trying to defend its Super Bowl title. That would have left oft-injured Jordan Hicks as the only Eagles 'backer with significant playing experience in Jim Schwartz's defense.
Six games are the baseline suspension for such an infraction, but as with then-Giants kicker Josh Brown in 2016, the league retains the right to reduce the time. Brown, like Bradham, ended up missing just one game.