NFL Cleveland Browns

Josh Gordon’s Latest Failed Test Will Effectively End His NFL Career

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According to multiple reports Cleveland Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon has tested positive for alcohol, all but guaranteeing his suspension for the 2015 NFL season. With this revelation, at this point Gordon may have just thrown away his NFL career.

The history with Gordon is pretty well known at this point; he had issues while at Baylor which got him indefinitely suspended from the team. He missed the first two games of the 2013 season for a substance-abuse policy infraction. He spent the first 10 games of the 2014 season serving another suspension, which should have been a yearlong suspension had it not been for the new NFL drug policy. And now he’s likely cost himself a full season and whatever goodwill he might have had left with the Browns.

It’s such a shame on multiple levels. On the personal level this is a 23-year-old kid who either clearly needs help or clearly needs a major reality check. On the football level, the argument could easily be made that Gordon is the most talented receiver in the game. In 2013 Gordon led the league in receiving yards and was given first team All-Pro honors. Making that even more impressive is the fact that he accomplished the feat in only 14 games. He is an elite talent who could have enjoyed a very long and productive football career.

At this point I don’t know that Gordon has many options left. It’s safe to say he won’t be playing football for the Browns anymore. This repeated history of his just goes back too far. Say Gordon comes back in 2016 and gets busted again, he’s probably looking at a permanent suspension. And I don’t know that any other team would roll the dice on him. Come the 2016 season he’d be too rusty and he’d be taking a spot up that a club could be using to develop a sleeper prospect they are high on. Roster spots are just too valuable and it becomes too easy to fall in love with a draft prospect.

As it stands now Gordon doesn’t have an NFL future, but that’s not to say that he couldn’t turn things around. The road to redemption has been traveled before, and there’s no reason why Gordon couldn’t do it also. At best it’s a simple task of maturing enough to make better decisions, and at worst he needs to get himself into a rehab program.

Either way, whatever it takes, I hope that Gordon takes this time to re-evaluate his choices and get himself right. I really hope he does. He’s got a life to straighten out and a career to salvage.

Doug Green is a blogger for www.RantSports.com covering the Philadelphia Eagles and the NFL.  Follow him on Twitter @DGreenNFL

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