Josh Gordon ‘thankful’ to be with Seahawks, his French bulldog, anime--and Russell Wilson
Josh Gordon has a reason he wanted to come to the Seahawks, above all other NFL teams.
And it’s a good one.
“Actually, yeah, (I’ve wanted to come here) for a long time. For a long time. Me and Russ have been talking about it for a little while behind the scenes, how nice it would be,” Gordon said Saturday.
“Here I am.”
Here Gordon is, ready for his Seattle debut with “Russ”—quarterback Russell Wilson — Monday night in the Seahawks’ NFC West showdown against Richard Sherman and the undefeated 49ers in Santa Clara, California.
“I admire his game. I think maybe he respected mine, mutually,” Gordon said of his friendship with Wilson.
The 2013 All-Pro wide receiver said it dates to 2014.
For a wide receiver, there’s a lot to love about Wilson. The $140-million franchise cornerstone, six-time Pro Bowl passer and Super Bowl winner has 25 touchdowns, a league-leading 22 passing, this season with just one interception.
“I love the way he plays. It’s just as simple as that,” Gordon said. “He’s just a great ball player. He can make it happen — for pretty much anyone.
So far, six days into his third team in 13 1/2 months, there are no signs of the knee injury that got him on New England’s injured-reserve list last month. No signs of Gordon being late to meetings and general disinterest, the other reported reasons the Super Bowl-champion Patriots didn’t want Gordon anymore.
So far in Seattle there are no signs of the other likely reason 27 other teams let Gordon go past on waivers last week before Seattle claimed him: his five suspensions and substance abuse since he entered the league with Cleveland in 2012.
Asked what life has been like off the field for him in the last year, which has included the NFL suspending him from December to August, including from New England’s Super Bowl win in February, Gordon said: “It’s been great, I think. It’s been great.
“I’ve got my family. We’re remote, so we travel a lot to see each other. My family always comes to the games, we always think about hanging out. I’ve got my dog, so it’s just me and my dog. We hang out, every day.
“I keep it easy. I keep it smooth. Playing video games. Binge-watching TV shows, anime. That’s about it.”
Gordon has two children, each 4 years old, with two women: Emma and Kaizen were born when he was starring with Cleveland. The kids live in Ohio.
Gordon’s dog is a French bulldog named Frankie.
The Seahawks claimed Gordon off waivers from New England last week in a quintessential Pete Carroll move. It continues the coach’s tradition of Marshawn Lynch, Percy Harvin, Dion Jordan, Brandon Marshall, Lendale White and others signing with Seattle since Carroll took over the team in 2010: Bring in a veteran who’s shown unique physical talent in the league but has been derailed by off-the-field issues.
The 68-year-old coach strongly believes he can coach and mentor any supreme talent into his team culture in Seattle.
“I mean, I’ve said it a million times to you guys: We are always looking for guys that have something special about them,” Carroll said before Gordon missed last weekend’s Seahawks win over Tampa Bay while moving to Seattle.
Carroll said from what he saw in three practices of Gordon catching passes from Wilson this week, the 28-year-old Gordon still has the big-play speed that built his career average above 17 yards per catch.
“He’s not old,” Carroll said.
“He moves really well. ... He was very impressive in terms of picking stuff up, studying overtime. He fit in really well. He’s a really good athlete.
“You can really tell that he’s got a lot of potential to be a big-time player. It was fun seeing him on the practice field. Did a nice job.”
The Seahawks are likely to use that the 6-foot-3, 225-pound Gordon’s speed Monday night for the first time to stretch a San Francisco defense that leads the NFL against the pass.
Sherman and the 49ers defensive backs press receivers off the line then drop into their zone coverages. The Niners’ pass rush has been decisively successful using only its swarming front four that includes Nick Bosa (seven sacks), Arik Armstead and DeForest Buckner to pressure quarterbacks into throwing the ball sooner than they’ve wanted to this season. That’s made the jobs of the seven San Francisco defenders in coverage much easier.
Gordon’s job Monday is to make their jobs harder.
His deep routes and league-wide reputation for huge plays should, the Seahawks plan and hope, open underneath routes for leading receiver Tyler Lockett and rookie DK Metcalf. That plan depends on Seattle’s offensive line giving Wilson enough time to throw. And that depends on lead back Chris Carson running the ball effectively, right at the 49ers, to make them defend honestly. Carson is coming off a 105-yard rushing day against the NFL’s top-ranked run defense, Tampa Bay’s.
New England traded a fifth-round pick to the Browns in Sept. 2018 to acquire Gordon. Late last season, after playing in 11 games and catching 40 passes for the Patriots, Gordon announced he was stepping away from football to focus on his mental health. Around that time the NFL suspended him indefinitely for violating the terms of his conditional reinstatement under the league’s substance-abuse policy. Commissioner Roger Goodell lifted Gordon’s suspension in August.
He caught 20 passes in 36 targets for 287 yards and a touchdown in six games this season for Tom Brady and the Patriots. Then he went on injured reserve last month with a knee injury.
He hasn’t been active for a full season since his rookie one, 2012 with the Browns.
He hasn’t played in a game since Oct. 10, when he had one catch for 7 yards in the Patriots’ win over the New York Giants.
Gordon had been playing through a bad knee until he banged it in that Giants game. Coach Bill Belichick said Gordon passed his physical with the Patriots to come off IR. Belichick then decided he no longer had a place for Gordon.
Carroll and the Seahawks do.
“I’m extremely excited. I have been for a while,” Gordon said. “Working out on my own, going to the physical therapist, coming in here. Working out, seeing the treatment staff, getting in the weight room. Finally getting back to being able to practice, getting my legs back underneath me. Get acclimated to the fast pace of the NFL.
“It feels good to be out there, nonetheless.
“Yeah, I feel great. I do.”
Gordon has 20 touchdowns and that average of 17. 1 yards per catch in his 58-game career. He had 87 catches for a league-leading 1,676 yards for Cleveland in 2013, his All-Pro and Pro Bowl season.
But entering the 2018 season, Gordon had missed 43 of Cleveland’s previous 48 games because of suspensions. He has fought through substance abuse, which he told GQ in 2017 began when he was in seventh grade. The NFL suspended him for the entire 2015 season for repeated violations of the league’s substance-abuse policy.
Carroll has a reputation around the NFL of fostering a player friendly locker-room culture in Seattle. That it’s a place where guys can be themselves as long as they relentlessly compete.
Asked what he knew of the Seahawks’ culture that made him want to join it, Gordon said: “I think it’s pretty simple: We go out and compete and enjoy what you do.
“It kind of seems as simple as that. People love to go hard and compete and give their all. It’s well-known how fortunate we are to play the game of football, and do so in a way that everybody can enjoy it and look forward to coming into work in the morning. Give your all and give your hardest in a conducive environment.
“He’s done a great job of building that culture. I think he’s known for that. Guys love and respect him. It seems like a very family-oriented environment here and it’s pretty great.”
After the suspensions and the substance abuse and now three teams in just over a year, Gordon appreciates another chance in the NFL.
In particular, he appreciates that this opportunity is with the 7-2 Seahawks. They are pushing to make the playoffs for the seventh time in eight years.
“I’m just grateful to be here,” he said. “Definitely thankful to land in a spot like this.”
This story was originally published November 9, 2019 at 3:48 PM.
