Mark Sanchez has worn a lot of hats in his NFL career. He has been a hotshot draft pick, a franchise savior, a playoff hero, a GQ cover boy, a disappointment, an embarrassment, a punchline, a has-been, a sorta creep, a guy who dances naked, a solid backup quarterback and ultimately an afterthought.
And on Friday, he added yet another: alleged PED cheat.
On Friday, the NFL announced it had suspended Sanchez for the first four games of next NFL season after he tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug.
In a statement posted to Instagram, Sanchez said he was “blind-sided” by the suspension and denied knowingly taking PEDs.
In a longer statement sent to ESPN’s Josina Anderson, Sanchez elaborated that the positive test was “the result of incidental and isolated exposure to a banned substance.”
NFL QB Mark Sanchez just text me his full statement on his 4-game suspension for PEDs. Sanchez cites unknown "supplement contamination." pic.twitter.com/jz1TnbwbVA
— JosinaAnderson (@JosinaAnderson) April 13, 2018
Of course, Sanchez’s suspension will not have any sort of seismic effect on the NFL, given that, as a free agent, he doesn’t currently even have a team to be suspended from. Sanchez spent last season on the Bears’ roster but failed to appear in a game, a year after attempting only 18 passes over a season with the Cowboys and has not won a game as a starting quarterback since 2014. These days he is a backup at best.
Sanchez is only 31 years old, so he could theoretically stick around the NFL a little longer, especially given how desperate teams are for quarterbacks, but the four-game suspension certainly won’t help him find a job. And if his career were to end here, in this bizarre, controversial and somewhat laughable way? Well, for the guy best known for the butt fumble, that will feel somewhat fitting.