Hopkins can return Oct. 17, but because the Cardinals play that week on Oct. 20 – a Thursday at home against the Saints – they don’t figure to practice but instead only walkthrough their preparation for that game.
“What’s bad about a walkthrough?” Hopkins said with a big smile.
“Thursday night is a big night to come back and have a debut game,” he added.
Hopkins wasn’t going to get to detailed on issues he had with the suspension, noting that he’d like to at a later date. He has long held he was found with just a trace amount in his system, but “the NFL is very black and white. I wish the NFL wasn’t so black and white, but it is what it is.”
Hopkins said he wished his team had had more time to appeal. “We fought until we could,” he said, saying he barely puts anything in his body that could even be the source.
“It’s hard to know when something gets contaminated at a trace amount when you’re not working at the manufacturing company,” he said.
He sounded resigned to the idea he would miss six games. The Cardinals have worked out a process for Hopkins to get ready in camp – a “great plan,” Hopkins called it – knowing he won’t be playing right away.
Coach Kliff Kingsbury said Hopkins has bought in to easing himself in, before allowing “you never know with Hop sometimes.”
“Anytime you get him on that field he wants to go out and practice,” Kingsbury said. “You have to save him from himself. He starts hearing guys talking trash, especially with fans in the stands, he’ll want to go put on a show.”
His knee now healthy, Hopkins now faces the countdown clock to his time with the team. Once the suspension begins, he said he will be mimicking the work the team does in practice, so he can try and mesh easily when Week 7 arrives.
He will watch the games on TV he said. And wait.
“I’m a patient guy,” Hopkins said. “I don’t get too frustrated with things, I don’t get too up and down. I deal with real life every day. I don’t think it’s something I’ll be too antsy about.
“I love the game. It’ll be hard watching those guys and not being there.”
