OXNARD, Calif. – It hasn't been a good couple of weeks for Robert Quinn. But speaking for the first time since his broken hand and then 2-game suspension, the Cowboys defensive end said it's nothing he can't handle.
"This is just life. This is nothing," Quinn said after Tuesday's walk-through practice. "I've been through a lot worse than a messed-up hand and a couple of games. It's just life. You deal with adversity. It makes you weaker or stronger. Its just on the person as to how he deals with it."
Quinn, who left training camp last week to have surgery in Dallas on his broken left hand, has returned to Oxnard this week. He'll likely leave on Thursday with other injured players and go back to Dallas instead of accompanying the team to Hawaii.
His two-game suspension from the NFL for violating the league's substance wouldn't have prevented him from participating in practices or the preseason games. However, the injury will sideline him for most of camp. He won't be eligible to return until Sept. 16, following the Week 2 game in Washington.
"I've been practicing all OTAs and training camp until this point," Quinn said. "It's a frustrating situation. We did what we had to do to defend me. It is what it is."
When asked his feelings on now having this label because of the failed PED test, Quinn stuck by his agent's comments from last week, which strongly suggested Quinn's innocence.
Last week, Quinn's agent Sean Kiernan posted a statement on Twitter, stating his extreme disappointment in the NFL for not evaluating Quinn's specific situation, which includes a medical history of seizures and requires him to take "multiple doses of preventive medication."
Quinn and his legal team appealed the NFL's decision but the ruling was upheld.
"As my agent said, it should've recorded as a false-positive. I'll just leave it at that," said Quinn, who also added that he's not going to dwell on the situation.
"The experts and everyone stated what they had to stay," Quinn said. "The data proves itself at this point, it's not going to change nothing. What is going to happen is going to happen. I just have to look forward to what I can do."
