Josh Gordon’s Latest Failed Test a Spit in the Face of Cleveland Browns

By Casey Drottar @cdrottar19 on January 26, 2015

By now, everyone knows about the report regarding Cleveland Browns receiver Josh Gordon and his latest failed substance test, which has the talented wideout currently looking at a one-year ban.

Actually, let me say it again, this time trying to put this whole situation in a little more perspective. Gordon, who was given a chance at the NFL after running into drug issues at two different colleges, who was suspended for the first two games of the 2013 season thanks to a failed drug test, and who was suspended for 10 games this past season despite almost being booted for a year, has once again failed another inspection.

You get all that? To sum it up, Gordon was given multiple chances to get on the straight and narrow and take full advantage of his otherworldly talent, and he blew every single one of them.

However, not only did Gordon waste an opportunity to have himself a successful career, as well as throwing away a chance at millions of dollars, he also has gone out of his way to disparage the team who tried so badly to help him out. Make no mistake; this latest failure is nothing but an insult to the Browns and their efforts to try and get him to realize his potential.

The amount of chances Cleveland has given Gordon is astounding. This is a player who came out of college draped in red flags. The Browns didn’t have to bother attempting to pick him in the supplemental draft, but they did, knowing full-well all of the risks involved. What the team saw from him midway through the 2012 season showed they had a future star on their hands, but only if they could keep him clean.

This proved to be an issue the very next year, after Gordon failed a test thanks to what he claims was codeine cough syrup. He was able to negotiate the suspension down to two games, but the Browns were testing the trade market for him before he made his return. However, they resisted, once again banking on his potential. The result remained the same: Gordon displayed nothing but brilliance in 2013, yet the concerns about his off-the-field antics weren’t going anywhere.

Given a chance to prove critics wrong, Gordon instead continued to make poor choices, failing yet another test early last year. Despite the fact their receiver was looking at a one-year suspension, the Browns decided not to cut ties with him. Their logic made sense, as they stated the last thing you want to do with a troubled player is send him packing. It was yet another example of Cleveland giving Gordon a chance to redeem himself.

Yesterday, we found out just what Gordon did with this opportunity. He was given strict rules to follow. He knew one more violation would result in a one-year ban. There’s nothing else he can say, no negotiating he could do to get himself out of this, not with the amount of strikes on his record. The 2015-16 season is going to move on without Gordon involved.

A player getting handed this many chances from his team only to refuse to change is an absolute spit in the face. The Browns knew Gordon was blowing an opportunity to become one of the biggest impact players in the NFL, they believed he would eventually change and take advantage of his God-given abilities. Various Cleveland players reached out to him, opened their doors to him, did everything they could to keep him occupied and try to prevent him from falling back into old habits.

What Gordon has said to all of them with this latest failure was, simply, “you wasted your time.”

Unfortunately, Gordon was already proving he wasn’t going to reward the Browns for sticking with him before this most recent issue. Upon returning from suspension this season, Gordon loafed on the field and ran the wrong routes, displaying miserable body language. To top it off, he was suspended by the team for the final game of the year after failing to show up to a mandatory walk-through.

There aren’t many teams in the league who would’ve dealt with Gordon the way the Browns did. Numerous players have been cut from plenty of franchises for lesser offenses. But Cleveland didn’t want to quit on Gordon. They refused to get rid of him, and yet all he did was make them second guess this loyalty. After everything the Browns did for him to try and get him better and attempt to hammer home the idea he was risking so much potential, Gordon just proved he wasn’t worth all the trouble.

Say all you want about this latest test failure being a result of alcohol, but the agreement Gordon made on his treatment plan prohibited this. Such is the case when you plead guilty to a DUI over the summer. In the end, it’s the same old story we’ve heard with Gordon time after time; he knew the rules, knew what would happen if he broke them, and proceeded to do so anyway.

So now, a wideout who set league records in 2013 is potentially facing the end of his career thanks to continually making bad decisions. Where two years ago he was concerned about how many touchdowns he could score in one game, now he needs to worry about whether or not any franchise is going to be interested in him once his year-long suspension ends. This, of course, is all dependent on if he can stay out of trouble during this banishment, something you’d hardly feel tempted to bet on.

It goes without saying Gordon needs help. He’s astoundingly talented, yet amazingly misguided. The Browns tried their hardest to give it to him, all the while resisting multiple chances to wash their hands of him. In the end, he ended up refusing their efforts, insulting a team who so desperately tried to get him on the right path.

All Gordon did was waste Cleveland’s time and efforts, and now he’ll have a year away from football to think about it.

Casey Drottar is a Featured Columnist for www.Rantsports.com. Follow him on Twitter or “Like” him on Facebook.