Maybe not so Jolly

That's going to be a question both short and long-term for the Packers: will their fourth-year defensive end, Johnny Jolly, be available to them in the future? Maybe not. Maybe not so Jolly after all.

This is one of those stories you hate to report as a Packer fan. It's about a young man with a world of potential who made it from a not-so-great environment in his hometown of Houston to the NFL. That's the good part of the story. The negative side is that, as with most of us, old habits die hard...especially when you go home and hang with the ol' buds. When you're a young man with cash in your pocket and friends willing to help you spend it...things can sometimes go awry. Even if it's just a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people.

That last statement is basically what Jolly's attorneys will be arguing as Jolly goes on trial this week, charged with possession of a controlled substance (codeine...lots of it), which is a second-degree felony that carries a sentence from two to 20 years if he's convicted. (By the way, apparently Houston has had an especially nasty problem with codeine abuse since the 1990s.)

All this comes as Jolly goes into the last year of his contract with the Pack. If convicted, his contract situation will obviously take care of itself. If not, based upon apparently long-held reservations the Packers have had about him, he could be traded or released unless he gets his act together.

And that's what you really hope. You want to root for the underdog, the kid who made it good, to get his act together in all aspects of his life. It's bigger than football (did I say that?). It's life.

If you want to read more about the details of Jolly's current situation and the circumstances surrounding his arrest about a year ago, check out this article from the Milwaukee Journal- Sentinel. If you're curious to know more about the codeine abuse problem in Houston, then check here for more information.

Latest Headlines snafu
Normally, the "Latest Headlines" area in the righthand column behaves, well, normally. However, if you happen to see a few "recent" story headlines referencing Thigpen and Titletown, and click on the links, you'll see stories supposedly posted to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel yesterday, July 13. However, they are really reports of a Packers game -- albeit an important one -- from 1995! Not sure what's up with this, folks. I don't control that particular area...it's a "bot" type thing. The only thing I can think of is that perhaps someone on the Journal-Sentinel staff was archiving or doing something with these stories which seemed -- to the all-knowing bot -- to be new because of the time of posting...regardless of the date of the original article. But if you want to take an unscheduled walk down memory lane, give it a go.

Hmmm...very weird. Anyway, didn't want you to think it was a mistake on this end. Blame it on the bot!