i havent john... but i have had many instances of promised starts with 6-7 missed and it was fine. my advice is to try to start him about 20 out of 26, making sure the last few games of the reg season, you start him (to make sure that you don't cross the line when its too late to fix it). if the player complains along the way, just start him the rest of the way and you should have no problem.
oh wait... this is the guy we battled for, huh? in that case, yes, you can start him half the time ;)