DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Josh Gordon Faces Year-Long Suspension

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What I don't understand is how we went from a team ready to possibly contend, to "4-10 same old Browns" just because of one player..

Is Gordon a talented player? Yes of course. But the Lions show that having the best WR in the league doesn't mean everything.

The cupboard is not bare. Yes we will bring more in, but we will be just fine.

Bringing in a rookie WR isn't going to replace Gordons production anyways.

Its time to stop all the doom and gloom. People want the team to change its losing ways. Maybe the fans need to change ther losing mentality.

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If this is true, you cut him tomorrow...you outright cut him

I don't give a damn...he has no trade value now with this, and its just a distraction...he may be a good receiver, but this type of behavior is just unacceptable.

Haslam needs to use this to send a message to this team...that himself, like The Rooney's, won't put up with this nonsense...either you stay clean or your not on the team..very simple concept.

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Browns not concerned about WR depth - Cleveland Browns Blog - ESPN
http://espn.go.com/blog/cleveland-browns/post/_/id/5639/farmer-im-not-concerned-about-depth-at-wr

The first day of the Cleveland Browns draft ended amidst jubilation and celebration.

It turned depressing and mysterious before the first player had even been taken on Day 2.

When word broke via ESPN’s Outside the Lines that Josh Gordon was facing a one-year suspension for failing another drug test, the proverbial wind was out of the proverbial sails.

Later in the night, ESPN’s Chris Mortensen broke the news that Nate Burleson had a fractured arm and would miss the offseason, but would be back for training camp.

If Gordon does miss a year and assuming Burleson returns, the Browns right now have Burleson, Greg Little and Andrew Hawkins as their prime receivers.

General Manager Ray Farmer said he is not concerned about the team’s depth at receiver, though.

“We play games in September,” Farmer said. ”Right now there’s still plenty of opportunities for us to acquire players and to make things happen.”

There’s only one draft, though, and the team’s decision in hindsight to trade down for cornerback Justin Gilbert and not take Sammy Watkins or Mike Evans looms larger if Gordon is suspended. Gordon is the team’s star and playmaker, and the receiving corps would have to depend on guys doing things they haven’t done in the past to succeed.

The Browns didn’t want to comment on Gordon’s situation, and in fairness the league handles the drug-testing program and teams are not supposed to comment on the details.

“Whenever we do have clarity we will express our sentiments then,” Farmer said.

He also did not get into whether he knew about Gordon’s situation, but said he drafts based on the team’s draft board and not on need or a player’s health situation.

“We organize the players, we rank them, we stack them and we stick to it,” Farmer said. “We believe that you do the work for a reason. You take the best players available. You establish your team by going through that process in making sure you draft the best guys in how you had them ordered in who are the best players in college football.”

The Browns went through the second day drafting an offensive lineman, a linebacker and a running back, but no receivers. Farmer said that was because of the way the team rated its players.

“We stuck with our board,” Farmer said. “As we looked at that board when it was our turn to select, we took the name that was the best name for us at that time.”

Thus, the Browns passed on Watkins and Evans because they liked Gilbert better. They passed on receivers on the second day because they liked offensive lineman Joel Bitonio, linebacker Christian Kirksey and running back Terrance West better.

The decision may come back to haunt them. In a sense it’s classic hindsight to look back -- except that Farmer and owner Jimmy Haslam knew of Gordon’s situation before the draft started, according to Mortensen and ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio.

Farmer simply believes he can still address the situation.

“Whether it’s trades, drafting someone the [third] day, players that get cut or we acquire somebody from the street,” Farmer said “there’s always opportunities to acquire players.”

There aren’t a lot of Josh Gordons, and if the Browns lose their top playmaker they may be left trying to win games with potentially a rookie quarterback, and a receiving group without its star.

That could leave the team relying on defense and the run game to win.

It can work, but without Gordon, well, the highs from Manziel sure seemed to dissipate in a hurry.

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I really want to smash Gordon right now over this,and the timing could not have been worse.

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Also is it just me or does there tend to be a lot more drama with our Browns the past couple years...ever since Haslem came aboard it seems...though I'm not pointing fingers at him...just seems we have drama on alot of different levels

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We are in the conversation and making headlines though...
.....even if it's not the ones we want to be in.

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This timing question is killing me, so I will attempt to answer my own question. This infraction happened a while ago, and the NFL wanted due process to run it's course. The NFL was prepared to hand down its punishment, after the draft. The Browns mad so much noise in the first round, that the NFL had to save face, nip this in the bud, and lay down sanctions now.

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I don't understand what's troubling or fishy about it.

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I don't understand what's troubling or fishy about it.

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I'm sorry if I'm slow on the uptake, I just don't remember something like this happening in the middle of a Draft

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Josh Gordon is one of those people who are just self destructive. No matter what is on the line, career--huge money, there is something in their psyche which will not allow themselves to be successful. Very sad.

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And Haslam knew it but still traded down and passed on the top WR's? WTF

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And Haslam knew it but still traded down and passed on the top WR's? WTF

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Good Gosh....just quit. Farmer conducted the draft, and I am 100% glad he stuck to his board and didn't allow the selfish act of a selfish player to change the teams plans.


I am sure the Browns were aware of this several weeks ago. Good for them, they stuck to the plan.


Some of you need to quit your whining and crying.

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Josh Gordon is one of those people who are just self destructive. No matter what is on the line, career--huge money, there is something in their psyche which will not allow themselves to be successful. Very sad.

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He ran the full gauntlet today. Did First Take, Sports Center, Highly Questionable and another show I think. Kinda disgusted that neither the Browns or ESPN told him what's up before they paraded him out there like that.

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It almost reminds me of last year, as our RB [position went from strength to "who do we have left that can carry the ball?"

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What I don't understand is how we went from a team ready to possibly contend, to "4-10 same old Browns" just because of one player..

Is Gordon a talented player? Yes of course. But the Lions show that having the best WR in the league doesn't mean everything.

The cupboard is not bare. Yes we will bring more in, but we will be just fine.

Bringing in a rookie WR isn't going to replace Gordons production anyways.

Its time to stop all the doom and gloom. People want the team to change its losing ways. Maybe the fans need to change ther losing mentality.

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“We organize the players, we rank them, we stack them and we stick to it,” Farmer said. “We believe that you do the work for a reason. You take the best players available. You establish your team by going through that process in making sure you draft the best guys in how you had them ordered in who are the best players in college football.”

The Browns went through the second day drafting an offensive lineman, a linebacker and a running back, but no receivers. Farmer said that was because of the way the team rated its players.

“We stuck with our board,” Farmer said. “As we looked at that board when it was our turn to select, we took the name that was the best name for us at that time.”

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The Browns lose a talented player but that cannot be allowed to distract them from their goal. We'll be fine.

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.
But overnight, all those millions of criminals suddenly became legal, law abiding citizens again.

It's easy to say, "He should have known better". But what if a piece of paper with a federal law written on it takes away some small thing you enjoy?

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There still seems to be something very odd about this test and announcement. I am no expert on NFL drug tests or how they are administered, but they will have exact amount of drugs in his blood, right down to last mcg. I am being optimistic that if it were very trace amounts that could be the appeal/ negotiating portion. If he was at a concert and others were smoking/ second hand smoke, it is a measurement. I have been part of administering drug tests at my workplace and we can dial it in damn close to time and amount due to the test. I certainly hope I am right, and this is why Mr Farmer and company are not overly aggressive about WR's yet. Josh certainly needs to get his crap together, if I am wrong about my suspicions we need to CUT him ASAP. This is not what "being a Brown" is.

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I work as a Substance Abuse Counselor. We drug test our patients and send the urine samples to a laboratory in a very professional manner and we pay a lot of money to this company to ensure accuracy and confidentiality. They can get very specific about any of the drugs that the patients test positive for like you stated above; however, there are many companies that offer drug testing services and they all can have a different threshold that needs to be exceeded for the drug sample to show up as positive. They do this specifically so the patient can not use the "Oh, it must have been second hand smoke" as an argument or to refute a positive result. For example, if there are X mcg's (micrograms) of THC in the urine sample, it is considered positive. It is virtually impossible for the person to inhale enough second hand smoke that would cause the test to show up positive if we're talking "he was at a concert" or something like that.

I have had patients who have flat out denied that the substance in question was in their system whether it was THC, Opiates, Cocaine, etc. When this occurs, we can have the laboratory reexamine the urine sample - and they can break it down to exactly how much mcg's of the substance was in their system and which exact chemical it was that caused the test to be positive. So for example, if it was positive for opiates, they can tell us which opiate it was (Codeine, Morphine, Heroin, Oxycontin, Percocet, Vicodin, etc.). There are also times after reexamining the sample, they state that it was a "cross-reacting substance" and that the test was in fact negative. In other words, it wasn't an opiate but something else that is very similar to an opiate in chemical structure and that this is what the test picked up on; this meaning it was a false-positive.

The problem with this for Gordon is that if it is for Marijuana, there are virtually no "cross reacting substances" with THC that could cause a false positive and the amount of mcg's in his system would simply indicate how long ago he likely used it. The second hand smoke argument is out of the question because even if he inhaled second hand smoke at a concert several hours before he provided the urine sample, it would not be enough mcg's of THC to cause the test to be positive.

If it is a drug such as am Amphetamine or a Benzodiazepine, there are various cross reacting substances that could cause a false positive and some of them can be purchased over the counter like Sudafed which contains an Amphetamine. Or there are many different types of Benzodiazepine in an anesthetic that can have been administered to person that is getting their wisdom teeth removed, for example, or for surgery of any kind.

I think that Gordon is up poop's creek and without a paddle at this point - pending that these reports are true. I am sure that the NFL uses a very reputable company to administer drug tests to the NFL players and the chance that they would make a mistake are slim to none and slim's out of town.

I'm assuming that it got this far because when it first came back positive, Gordon denied it and wanted the sample to be reexamined which afterwards he was informed that was not a false positive and that he was facing a season long (or whatever) suspension. Thing's aren't looking good for him at all at this point.

I think the best case scenario is that he tries to get the amount of time he is suspended reduced and I'm not sure how he goes about doing that. Maybe by voluntarily entering an inpatient rehab facility or some sort of community service? It's kind of like what college programs do after finding out that they violated an NCAA rule.

I don't know guys, I'm just as confused as everyone else and I find of the timing of this to be almost 'too coincidental'. It's released minutes before the beginning of the second day of the draft and after Gordon had been interviewed on Sportscenter among other appearances earlier in the day? It's just weird. If it's true though which as of right now it appears so, I agree that he should be cut from the team. This definitely contradicts the "Play Like a Brown" mantra that Coach Pettine is trying to instill. I could see if it was his first offense, but unfortunately Gordon has been through this far too many times throughout his collegiate and NFL career.

He has an obvious substance abuse problem and just can not stop even when he knows that he is risking millions of dollars, is letting his entire family down, his teammates, etc. If these things aren't enough to motivate you to stop using drugs, then it seems that nothing will and this man severely needs to enter an extended rehab where he could receive extensive counseling and really try to find himself. This is assuming, however, that Gordon is willing to admit that he has a problem and needs help.

This is why they say in the drug addiction recovery community that in order to get clean and stay clean, you "have to want to do it for yourself" first and foremost. You have to be internally motivated not to use drugs. All of these things that I just listed are external sources of motivation (money, teammates, and even family) meaning that he isn't staying clean for himself.

This man really needs some addiction counseling where he could learn more about the stuff that I am talking about and he has to have a positive attitude and open mind about it if he is ever going to overcome these issues with substance abuse.