Seahawks’ Josh Gordon was quiet day before latest NFL suspension for substance violations
Josh Gordon was oddly quiet.
With teammates all around him giddily celebrating the Seahawks’ latest win that put them back in first place, Gordon’s head was down as he dressed Sunday. He faced inward, into his locker, away from locker neighbor DK Metcalf. And everyone else.
The 2013 All-Pro wide receiver had his first big, down-the-field play since joining the Seahawks on waivers from New England six weeks ago. His 58-yard catch on Sunday at Carolina was majestic: a diving, horizontal, parallel-to-the-ground grab of Russell Wilson’s deep pass in the second quarter.
It was vintage 2013 Josh Gordon. It set up Seattle’s third touchdown in three drives to begin an eventual 30-24 victory over the Panthers. And it suggested he could be a huge piece to the Seahawks’ push for the Super Bowl.
But in the locker room in Charlotte, N.C., following the game, Gordon refused The News Tribune’s request for a postgame interview. Or even a comment.
“I’m not answering questions today,” Gordon said Sunday, politely but firmly.
Perhaps now we know why.
Monday, his career—forget football, his life—was suddenly in jeopardy. Again.
Coach Pete Carroll’s somber tone and words Monday afternoon underlined that hours after the NFL suspended Gordon indefinitely again for violating its policies on both performance-enhancing substances and substances of abuse.
This is the eighth time he’s been suspended in his career, which began with the Cleveland Browns in 2012. This is his seventh suspension by the league, his second in 12 months. The Browns suspended him once. That was a year after his breakout season with 1,646 yards and nine touchdowns receiving.
He hasn’t played a full season since. He has said he began abusing substances in grade school, at a time a kid should not even know what those substances are.
“My heart goes out to Josh having to face this again,” Carroll said.
“The fact that he’s up against it, and all, it poses a great challenge to him.”
Per the normal course of the NFL’s confidential drug-testing program, Gordon assuredly played Sunday’s game in Carolina knowing he had taken a test and failed it. He knew he had just jeopardized his new career and new life he wanted to have with Seattle before it ever had a chance to flourish.
Speaking quietly, Carroll described the Seahawks saw no signs of a relapse by Gordon of his previous issues with substance abuse.
In fact, last week the coach was saying how he and the team were “counting on” Gordon becoming a consistent, deep-ball threat into the playoffs.
“We saw Josh at a really high level, the whole time he was here,” Carroll said Monday. “The work ethic was one, but his getting along with people and being good to work with and talk to on a regular basis, he was great.
“So we were not aware that there was anything to be concerned about—other than the history, which we knew about.”
It’s a remarkably sad story.
Gordon was seeking a new life and career re-start in Seattle. He remarked last week how the Seahawks’ felt like family. He particularly appreciated that while he was in a new city thousands of miles from his two 4-year-old children late last month, his new teammates opened their homes to him during Thanksgiving.
Gordon even said his dog, a French bulldog named Franklin, “loves” Seattle.
“He’s used to the cold. At least he should be by now. He stays indoors a lot,” Gordon said. “Got to get him out, hiking.”
Gordon seemed happy, like he was recharging as much as restarting.
“It’s been great, actually,” he said just Wednesday of his third team in the last 14 months. “Spent the holiday with some families, some teammates here. They extended their homes to let me to come out for Thanksgiving.
“It’s been a great transition, to be honest with you.”
That locker-room vibe and culture — plus the chance to play with Wilson — were more valuable to Gordon than his modest seven catches for 139 yards in five games since the Seahawks claimed him off waivers from New England last month.
Those intangibles are why Gordon already wanted to be with Seattle beyond his contract ending with this 2019 season.
“I’m just fortunate, in general, to have landed in a place like this, with a coach like this, coaching staff and the organization from the top down, guys ... it’s just real family-like,” Gordon said Wednesday.
“It’s a great feeling to kind of come back to football and enjoy what you do and be able to have fun, also. That’s a blessing in this league. This organization has perfected it, you know. And it’s great.”
Now, it’s dark. Gordon is again seeking to get his life turned around.
He has now lost the closely knit environment he found with the Seahawks. Per terms of his seventh suspension by the NFL, he cannot be at team headquarters nor around the team in any capacity. While the 11-3 Seahawks roll into the playoffs for the seventh time in eight years, Gordon is being mandated by the league’s substance-abuse program to go to the league’s support system for substance abuse.
It’s a system that Gordon, tragically, knows well. Carroll said he and Gordon discussed it last month, and that the coach learned Gordon was an active and understanding participant in it.
“Fortunately, he’ll have the benefit of all the league’s resources to support him and help him,” Carroll said. “We wish the very best in taking care of business.”
Asked about the football impact of Gordon’s suspension, Carroll, to his credit, said, “this isn’t about that,” that it’s about Gordon’s life.
“It’s very unfortunate, you know.”
This story was originally published December 16, 2019 at 1:41 PM.
