Report: Josh Gordon planning to sign with Chiefs, not Seahawks, upon his NFL reinstatement
One day after their general manager said they’d like “to get rollin’” on re-signing Josh Gordon pending official word of his reinstatement by the NFL, the Seahawks apparently didn’t get rollin’ quickly enough.
The 30-year-old former All-Pro wide receiver who last played for Seattle before his latest league suspension for drugs is planning to sign with the Kansas City Chiefs upon his expected reinstatement. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that Monday.
“His agents, Eric Dounn and Matt Leist from @LAASportsEnt confirmed Gordon is headed to Kansas City,” Schefter posted online on his Twitter account Monday afternoon.
Gordon had said he considered Seattle his new home. He stayed around the city to live and train during his suspension in December 2019, his eighth NFL suspension for drugs. That was six weeks and five games into his time with the Seahawks.
The team re-signed him last September on the expectation commissioner Roger Goodell was about to reinstatement for last season. Goodell conditionally reinstated Gordon in December to possibly play by the end of that month. Then he went back on suspension for what a league spokesman told The News Tribune nine months ago was Gordon’s failure to satisfy all conditions of his reinstatement.
The Seahawks released his rights in March so he could sign a contract with the new Fan Controlled Football league streamed live on Twitch, a leading online gamer platform.
Seattle general manager John Schneider was on the pregame show on the team’s radio network Sunday before its loss at Minnesota dropped the Seahawks to 1-2. He was asked about whether his team would be interested in signing Gordon back, pending his reported reinstatement by Goodell, a move that Schefter reported could happen this coming week.
“Obviously, he’s somebody who’s great in Seattle,” Schneider told KIRO AM and the Seahawks’ radio network from Minneapolis Sunday.
Schneider said if and when the NFL officially reinstates Gordon, “we’d like to get rollin’ with him.”
The defending AFC-champion Chiefs, a surprising 1-2 to begin the season, apparently beat them to Gordon.
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said Friday he’s always welcoming Gordon back to the Seahawks — if the opportunity arises.
“I’ve always thought a lot of Josh. I kind of feel for him,” Carroll said. “He’s been a local kid, as well, he’s been around here in the area and stuff (training). We’ll see what happens. He’s been — just like everybody, he deserves another chance. And hopefully that’s what’s going on.”
Carroll was asked Friday if he told Gordon upon releasing him March 4 that the coach and the Seahawks would welcome him back to the team if Goodell and the NFL reinstate him.
“I’ve never not talked about that with Josh,” Carroll said. “I’ve always been on that topic for him.
“Sorry, I don’t have much information to say much with, at this point. But I’ve always felt that way.
“So, we’ll see what happens.”
What happened is Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid and the recently champion Chiefs apparently presented Gordon with what he thinks is a better opportunity.
Gordon said in December 2019 he believed he had found a new home and new start on life in Seattle and with the Seahawks, who signed him following the New England Patriots waiving him because of his problems. Gordon was on the Seahawks’ active roster for six weeks that 2019 season.
Days before he got suspended in December 2019, Gordon said he’d like to play for Seattle for as long as he could see. He particularly appreciated that while he was in a new city thousands of miles from his two 4-year-old children who were back in Cleveland in November, 2019, his new teammates opened their homes to him during that Thanksgiving.
“Oh, yeah, absolutely. Seattle is amazing,” he said at his locker in the Seahawks facility in Renton days before his last NFL game.
“Yeah, football aside, I would definitely love to live in a place like this. ...
“I think, optimistically, that’s anybody’s goal, any player’s goal, to try to find a place you can call home — in all aspects.
“The culture’s just different. I think it’s something that felt more like a fit, I guess, to me. It’s pretty natural. It’s pretty smooth.
“It’s just my pace, I guess.”
The league has suspended him eight times since Gordon began with the Cleveland Browns in 2012 and the eighth overall. The Browns suspended him once, a year after his breakout season of 2013 when he had 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 — Xanax, marijuana, codeine — at a time a kid should not even know what those substances are. He has said as a teen he smoked marijuana daily and drank vodka in a bottle of orange juice during school classes.
The terms of the otherwise confidential NFL drug-testing program include a suspended player having to comply with league-ordered counseling and support meetings. Carroll said in December 2019 the Seahawks learned upon signing him Gordon also has his own, personal support group he’s depended upon to get reinstated by the league previously.
This story was originally published September 27, 2021 at 1:46 PM.
