You have to feel for Josh Gordon. Once upon a time, in the year 2013, Gordon was on the Cleveland Browns during one of their many dark years since returning to the NFL. Substance abuse issues followed him from college to the pros, namely his penchant for marijuana.
Gordon was suspended for the first two games of that season, yet still recorded 87 receptions, 1,646 yards and nine TDs. All with some combination of Brian Hoyer, Brandon Weeden and Jason Campbell throwing him the rock. G.T.F.O.H.
In case you missed it, Ohio legalized marijuana last night.
Now obviously the NFL is its own entity and can dish out any type of discipline they want. Just because you don’t face legal action doesn’t mean you’re not engaging in conduct unbecoming of the shield. Gordon felt the wrath of that and then some.
Alas… Ohio has voted to legalize marijuana a decade after Gordon’s transcendent season. I can’t help but feel for Gordon — and he feels a type of way about it, too.
Turns out IG threads aren’t embeddable so I’m making do! At least Gordon seems to have a sense of humor about it all. How else could you cope? I’d be pissed.
It’s weird energy when Johnny Manziel gets lionized for his legendary partying, along with the likes of Joe Namath, but Gordon gets suspended multiple seasons for slipping up on some weed. Obviously JFF’s partying caught up to him and ended his career. It’s well-known that Manziel and Gordon were bad influences on each other during their shared time in Cleveland.
What irks me even more is the fact that Percy Harvin, a successful playmaker in the NFL, suffered from chronic migraines and has publicly admitted he got high before every game. Unless I missed something, Harvin was suspended for zero games for marijuana.
Unfortunately, because of repeated violations of the NFL’s substance abuse policy, Gordon’s career was derailed with two seasons’ worth of suspensions in 2015 and 2016. It’s a shame. The NFL and Goodell could’ve been more progressive on this perceived problem, rather than ostracizing Gordon for something that’s so widely legal now.
I really don’t think folks understand just how good Josh Gordon was. He was basically a slightly shorter version of Calvin Johnson with similar athletic traits. We’re talking freak of freaks.
It’s too bad Gordon wasn’t born 10 years later…
He’d be in college right now, probably catching balls from Shedeur Sanders in Boulder, Colorado, getting marijuana NIL deals left and right — just kidding about that bit, the NCAA are a bunch of prudes — and boosting his stock as a first-round NFL draft pick while getting mentored by Coach Prime.
Really sucks that the molecules that came together to create the genetic marvel that is Josh Gordon didn’t time out quite right. Even more recently, though, Gordon was suspended indefinitely for his sixth violation of the NFL’s substance abuse policy in January 2021. I think I’ve counted them right. So many suspensions. Sheesh.
Long story short, he’s since been reinstated, and last played for the XFL’s Seattle Sea Dragons this season, where he had 38 receptions for 540 yards and four TDs. For how physically gifted he is and how little mileage he has on his tires with all the time he’s missed, the 32-year-old Gordon could play in the NFL again someday. Not holding my breath on that. It just sucks that he couldn’t resist marijuana, and was seemingly addicted to it, since he knew he wasn’t allowed to use it or risk being suspended for a long period of time…and did it anyway.
So like even if it was an addiction issue, why wouldn’t the NFL just put their arms around him and help him with it? Again, why demonize and ostracize him? It’ll never make sense. It sucks.
