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Josh Gordon discussion

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To be quite honest I'm surprised everyone on here doesn't agree with my take...shocked to see some people are sticking up for him.

I'm not even mad at Gordon. I'm extremely disappointed in him and I found this letter to be pretty pathetic, almost cringe-worthy. In addition I found it to be supremely passive-aggressive. All he's doing is lashing out at people for criticizing him when it's their job to talk about him. I know, I know, somebody actually "doing their job" is a foreign concept to Josh Gordon, but still.

Actions speak louder than words. It's a huge cliche, I know, but it's true. The guy has like a half dozen violations going back to college. Time to put up or shut up. Actually, that time was like 2-3 violations ago.
 
Cluegiver said:
I still want to know how you inadvertently inhale enough secondhand smoke to fail a drug test.
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I have a job where I'm subject to random drug testing. I went to a concert a few months ago and as soon as the lights went down, it seemed like everybody in that place lit up a blunt. I didn't smoke anything myself, but if I had been tested the next day, I'm not sure I would have been able to pass. I mean it was that heavy in there, standing room only and surrounded by people. I think it's possible. Sometimes situations pop up that you weren't even expecting.
 
Most of this guy's incidents at the NFL level are petty as hell. The DUI is the exception, and obviously a big one.

If you believe his story (I do) then the codeine was him being stupid and unaware of what he can and cannot consume.

Then the famous marijuana incident where the drug test was blatantly inconclusive and the threshold they were testing for was absurd. Still his fault for hanging out with pot heads, but again the actual crime isn't a big deal.

Then this recent alcohol transgression. Nevermind the fact that it was a dumb ban to place on Gordon in the first place, but as he said his season was over. He was obviously stupid again for not checking before drinking, but his season was over and the ban was "until the end of the season". I can't help but feel more upset towards the NFL than Josh in this case.

Too many little bullshit incidents that are magnified by his past. He brought this upon himself, but honestly it has gotten overblown to a ridiculous level. The dude doesn't have a problem besides being a bonehead.

Cut him and he will absolutely blow up somewhere else and make us look idiotic.
 
I'm with @Chris . Article just came off as a bunch of total bullshit to me. I don't believe a damn word he says and never will again.
 
I'm not going to go as far as calling him a piece of shit human being, druggie, or alcoholic because I don't believe he is any of those things.

What I will call him is a grade A dumb ass who has zero accountability. Sorry bro, its hard for me to pity you when you piss away millions and millions of dollars time and time again because you have no respect/do not care enough to know the rules. I think if I were him, knowing that the "end of the season" is a pretty broad term, I would have gotten some clarification before going to Vegas and posting it all over twitter and intstagram when my career is on the line. I don't think that's too much to ask...
 
The instagram has since been deleted, but I'm sure you guys remember.

On January 3rd, Josh Gordon retweeted an Instagram post by Travis Benjamin, showing him on a plane with a styrofoam cup. He was with his teammates, as described in the letter, and they were obviously drinking. Could the league have seen this picture and phoned up the second he landed to have him drug tested?
 
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Ridiculous on Josh's part. Woe is me infused with a sucker punch of denial. Great way to tug at the emotions of fans while giving the middle finger to people who actually see him for what he is and denying he has a problem.

The saddest part to me is that the Brown's organization are giving guys like Gordon and Manziel every opportunity to further dismantle the reputation of their club while substantially raising season ticket prices.

Alec Scheiner, Cleveland Browns President, was on 92.3 The Fan and used "to be competitive with other NFL teams", "we haven't raised prices in 7 years", and "we clearly improved as a team" as a catalyst for raising said season ticket prices.

Clearly we saw improvement. So much improvement that we lost our last 6 of 7 games. Do we know who our starting QB is next year? Hell no, but we will just take it up the ass any way we can get it. Wait... hasn't Haslam only owned the Browns for two years so wouldn't the whole "haven't raised prices in 7 years" be a complete crock of shit point to make?

This is a shady, inexperienced organization that relies on the business model of get rich or die trying... to get richer off gullible people.
 
Josh's problem is not that he's only 23 years old like he seems to believe is the issue. I've known 23 year olds (yes, even some from bad backgrounds) who are leaps and bounds more mature than Josh. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, it might not even be addiction. But it IS an issue of responsibility.

It's great that he admits his fault (and I agree that the rules are BS but they are what they are) but what has come of it so far? His suspension for weed, his DWI and now the alcohol suspension have all happened in a span of less than 8 months. That's ridiculous. That has way less to do with Josh being 23 than it has to do with him not taking things seriously and not taking responsibility for his actions. That's not an age thing, that's a "not learning from mistakes" thing.

He clearly didn't know he wasn't allowed to drink or he wouldn't have been doing it on a team plane with a bunch of people who should've been telling him no. How did he not, after almost blowing his career with the weed suspension, take responsibility and learn exactly what would trigger another suspension and avoid it?

Josh honestly doesn't seem like a bad dude but man, if the threat of a year-long suspension isn't enough to get you to be extra careful, I don't know what can. I absolutely want to keep him under contract and see what comes of this but like with Johnny, talk is cheap.

I hope he gets it together for both his and the Browns sake but he has a lot of growing up to do first.
 
Basically he fucked him self by burying a deeper hole after the 1st time he got suspended for doctor prescribed codeine, he should of checked with the league office like he says in the letter.

So because that happened, that's what made the league go Nazi Germany on him and drug test him multiple times after that only to fail by a half simple even though he's already passed multiple times. Keep in mind the half sample test would be LEGAL in today's NFL drug policy.

It's his own stupidity at the end of the day but it's honestly also some bad luck, fucking with up things like this doesn't make you anywhere near an addict though which is why I'm glad Josh came out with this letter.
 
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Like @Chris has been saying.. Lots of excuses, which may be root issues, but that's not necessarily a unique trait for an NFL player. Heck, that's not necessarily unique for anybody making a successful career.. At some point it comes down to just making the right choices, one day at a time.

I'm not convinced that Josh has an addiction to the substances, but he sure doesn't do a good enough job abstaining from the lifestyle he uses as a crutch. I mean, the dude got a tattoo of a huge marijuana leaf on his back last off-season, in 2014. 2 years after putting pot down for good? Sounds like a gigantic lie.

Bottom line is Josh has to stop rationalizing his brushes with these situations (i.e. 2nd hand smoke, barely over legal limit, what counts as the "end of the season"?, etc.) and own them outright. I don't even want to hear about mitigating circumstances from Josh. Just stay away from it. Easier said than done, but he's got to choose his "I'm a proud Haitian" lifestyle or football. Clearly they don't mesh well.
 
I think fans are often off-put when players attempt to humanize themselves, try to explain themselves or fight back against the league imposed rules.

Some would want them to sit there in their wrongness and be wrong, and to some extent I'm one of those people. But I do think some of these pundits often cross the line when attempting to pretend they know the players situation.

Saying "he's going to die," or calling him an alcoholic is a sharp criticism from guys who have almost ZERO accountability in journalism these days.

For that, I've got no problem that he's pushing back.
 
AZ_ said:
I think fans are often off-put when players attempt to humanize themselves, try to explain themselves or fight back against the league imposed rules.

Some would want them to sit there in their wrongness and be wrong, and to some extent I'm one of those people. But I do think some of these pundits often cross the line when attempting to pretend they know the players situation.

Saying "he's going to die," or calling him an alcoholic is a sharp criticism from guys who have almost ZERO accountability in journalism these days.

For that, I've got no problem that he's pushing back.
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I don't disagree at all. Some of that stuff went over the line, not doubt about it. I'm not convinced at all that Josh Gordon has an addiction, either. Unfortunately, that's even more damning of him, because that simply means he's an idiot.

Having said that about the media, it's still their job to talk about this stuff as ridiculous as it is. LeBron has been through ridiculous scrutiny since he was 17 and has never once broken the law or been suspended or anything like that. In fact, for all the haters LeBron has, like...the worst thing the guy ever did was have a national TV special announcing his decision to leave us! I mean, the guy is virtually spotless. And I can say this about tons of other successful athletes too. Did the media cross the line saying Gordon was "going to die" and stuff? Absolutely, I thought that was melodramatic as hell and again he probably isn't even an addict. But they're doing their job and drumming up drama and hot topics, that's what the media does. Maybe Josh Gordon should just start doing his own job.
 
If nothing else, this letter sets a new level of expectations for him going forward as an attempt to regain some credibility within the league.

Perhaps it's his final crossroads.

He'll essentially be out of action for most of the next two years. If he can keep himself clean throughout that time and make a comeback out of this, he can come back to this article and expand on it to form a whole different narrative.

On the flipside, if he can't, then he's done.
 
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