ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Aqib Talib swears he’s more concerned about the possible punishment Julio Jones could deliver this weekend than any discipline that might await him from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Aqib Talib swears he’s more concerned about the possible punishment Julio Jones could deliver this weekend than any discipline that might await him from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
The Denver Broncos star cornerback could still face discipline from the league over the shooting in Dallas last summer in which he admitted accidentally shooting himself in his right leg.
“I’m not really worried about anything except for Atlanta right now,” Talib said Wednesday, a day after WFAA-TV in Dallas reported that detectives determined Talib shot himself on June 5, but that he wouldn’t face any criminal charges in the case.
“When I heard that report yesterday, I immediately got on my iPad and started watching Julio Jones,” Talib said. “I cannot even worry about it. I got my hands full with enough already. Like I said, it’s still under review. I’m not really going to talk about that right now.”
Dallas police confirmed the report Wednesday evening in a statement, saying Talib’s attorney had provided a letter “that stated Aqib Talib admitted he shot himself accidentally.” But police said the investigation is ongoing.
Even if he faces no legal consequences in the case, Talib could still be suspended or fined by the NFL, which doesn’t require criminal charges or a conviction to mete out player punishment.
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Talib’s case “is under review of the personal conduct policy.”
Coach Gary Kubiak said the Broncos are “just moving forward, he’s playing great, obviously having a heck of a year and (we’re) expecting him to keep going.”
Teammates aren’t fretting either, suggested cornerback Chris Harris Jr.
“That’s a weird situation,” Harris said. “You never know what’s going to happen. You never know what the NFL’s going to do anytime, with any situation. Right now, he’s not in jail. So, I mean, what can you do if he didn’t go to jail? He didn’t do anything wrong.”
On Sunday, the Broncos (4-0) host the Falcons (3-1), who are coming off a 48-33 rout of Carolina in which Matt Ryan threw for 503 yards and Jones became just the sixth player in NFL history to post a 300-yard receiving game.
Talib, who was sidelined for three months after suffering a gunshot wound to his right thigh and calf, has started all four of Denver’s games and has three interceptions.