Quincy Enunwa returns to Jets, eager to put domestic violence suspension behind him

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- Quincy Enunwa is just happy it's all behind him.

The Jets receiver spoke on Thursday for the first time since serving a four-game suspension for violating the NFL's personal conduct policy.

"Can't say it was the best time of my life, those four weeks off. Watching the guys [play] . . . it was hard. But I knew I had to get my time done so I could help the team as best as I could," said Enunwa, 23, who was suspended without pay on Oct. 19.

The timing of the suspension, which came 14 months after he was arrested on Aug. 31, 2014, and charged with "domestic violence simple assault" after an alleged altercation with his girlfriend in a Florham Park hotel room, was surprising, Jets coach Todd Bowles said at the time. But Enunwa said he wasn't caught off guard.

"I can't say that I was surprised just because they were doing investigations. They told me about the investigations," he said, referring to the NFL. "It was kind of disappointing that something came out after everything had happened. But I can't say that I was surprised.

"We had an idea at the beginning of the year. But we didn't know exactly when it was going to happen."

Enunwa's girlfriend chose not to pursue the charges, according to the prosecution, and Enunwa was cleared of the domestic violence charge. Both sides reportedly reached a conditional agreement in which there could be no contact between him and the woman for 90 days.

Enunwa's last game was on Oct. 18, back when the Jets were 4-1. The second-year receiver caught eight passes for 94 yards in five games and had emerged as a solid blocker before his suspension.

Per league rules, Enunwa said he wasn't allowed to work out at the Jets' facility or watch film or study plays. So he enlisted the help of an outside trainer at a nearby facility "to stay in shape as much as possible."

"Surprisingly, the playbook came to me really fast. That was good," he said.

Enunwa politely declined to divulge the details of the domestic violence incident.

"I'm just glad that it's past me," he said. "I'm hoping to now focus on football . . . No outside interferences, I want to kind of stay on the straight and narrow for the rest of my career.

"I think the best thing for me is to kind of move past it . . . I don't want me to be a distraction on a team, I kind of want to keep going forward and be a positive influence on the team."

Enunwa did say he learned a lot from his suspension.

"It definitely helped me grow a lot," he said. "I learned a lot about the NFL and learned a lot about myself, and I just kind of want to make sure that I don't put myself in any kind of position like that again. There's a lot of sides to the NFL and I never want to be on that side of the NFL again."