Gordon Says Goodbye To The NFL
The NFL has banned Josh Gordon. An NFL spokesperson was quoted as saying that Gordon was being indefinitely suspended for breaking NFL policies on performance-enhancing substances and substance of abuse. This is far from the first time that Godron has violated NFL policies.
Since 2013, Gordon has been suspended six times. Five out of these six suspensions were due to issues of substance abuse. All of these suspensions have led to Gordon missing a fair amount of the total games that he could have played in his career. These suspensions have resulted from Gordon’s issues of substance abuse.
Timeline Of Gordon’s Troubles
Gordon initially played football at Baylor University in college. After multiple team violations related to marijuana Baylor’s head-coach indefinitely suspended Gordon in 2011. Later that year Gordon was set to play for Utah. He ended up changing his mind and declaring for the NFL draft. This was done too late though and resulted in Gordon having to wait until the 2013 draft.
After having initial success in the league Gordon’s contributions to the Browns began to lessen due to lengthy suspensions. Gordon missed 10 games in the 2014 season and the whole 2015 season for violations of the NFL’s substance-abuse policy. This along with further issues related to substances resulted in Godron only playing in six games for the Browns after the 2014 season until he was traded to the Patriots in 2018.
Within the 2018 and 2019 season, Gordon played in 17 games for the Patriots until he was released. The Seahawks picked up Godron who had seven receptions in five games. Unfortunately, this all ended when Gordon violated the NFL substance-abuse policy.
Gordon Had Great Potential
There are a few sad things about this situation. One is all the wasted potential that Gordon’s substance abuse issues have led to. Although Josh Gordon’s college career was cut short it was still pretty impressive. Once in the NFL, his numbers were even better.
In Gordon’s second year he was named to the Pro Bowl. This was thanks to 1,646 receiving yards that led the league in receiving. Along with this Gordon was the first NFL player to have back to back 200-yard receiving games. Suspensions led to Gordon missing a majority of the 2014-2017 NFL season, but he still had solid averages.
In 2018 Gordon was traded to the Patriots. During his time with the team, Gordan performed quite well recording over 1,000 receiving yards in 17 games. Unfortunately though Gordon’s true potential was significantly hindered due to him playing in 63 out of the 128 potential games that he could’ve in his NFL career. Another sad takeaway from this situation is the fact that Godron seems to have struggled with substance abuse for a long time now.
Gordon’s History of Addiction
In an interview with GQ, Gordon revealed that he started taking drugs in seventh grade. This included abuse of Xanax, marijuana, and codeine. This abuse stemmed from severe self-esteem issues that led to anxiety. These issues of addiction continued throughout his football career.
Gordon spoke of most likely not being sober during any college or NFL game he played in. It is clear that Josh Gordon suffered from big issues of addiction. Although never properly addressed, Gordon made efforts to fight his addiction such as when he entered rehab in 2016.
One might go to blame Gordon for his continuous suspensions, but I kind of just feel bad for him. Gordon definitely deserves some of the blame. But sadly Gordon has touched on the fact that his talents led him to believe that he would never have to stop doing drugs. During his time at Baylor, the head-coach provided him with bottles of detox to pass a drug test.
Final Thoughts
The whole situation is unfortunate. Gordon seemed to squander quite the promising NFL career but also suffered from significant issues of addiction. Sadly, Gordon’s talent led to him as well as the people around him never properly addressing his substance abuse issues.
What are your guys’ thoughts though? Did Gordon just drop the ball and blow his shot at the NFL? Or is this an unfortunate case of someone’s issues of addiction not being addressed due to their abilities on the field?
