Alfonzo Dennard was at court yesterday, that explains why he wasn't at practice

The Patriots had everyone at practice yesterday, except corner back Alfonzo Dennard.

Since the rookie seventh round pick has turned out to be a key part of the Patriots defense, this had some people concerned. And then confused. Dennard was offically listed as a Non-Injury related absence. There was also some suspicion that he was back in Nebraska due to some of his tweets. Ones telling teammates of his in Nebraska to "come over".

Today this whole thing got cleared up.

ESPN:
New England Patriots cornerback Alfonzo Dennard missed practice Wednesday because he was in Nebraska, at a hearing on pretrial motions in relation to an April 21, 2012 arrest, according to documents from the District Court of Lancaster County, Neb.

Oh yeah, kind of forgot about that whole punching a cop thing.

Dennard was initially graded as a top talent in the draft. He had some trouble with the law and fell all the way to the seventh round. It was seen as potentially one of the biggest steals in the draft. So far, it's worked out pretty well for the Patriots.

Obviously this whole court situation bears some monitoring though.