Was Josh Gordon a Bargain?

The Cleveland Browns finally gave up on Josh Gordon, and it’s a very complicated situation. Many people will have opinions and will fight over it, but let’s not fight. Let’s first establish the truth.

These things are undeniable

The Browns have been 1-31 the last two years and are pretty unwatchable
The thing that makes football the most watchable is playmakers, usually QBs, RB’s, or Receivers.
The Browns have only had one real playmaker since they came back. It was Josh Gordon. He only played one year, but no one will dispute how amazing he was.
The Browns have been the worst franchise in the NFL from a winning standpoint and an entertainment standpoint since they came back
The Browns have still made money since they came back
The Browns tried to draft Josh Gordon as a bargain. They got him on the cheap, because of his past marijuana use. They knew he smoked marijuana, that’s why they got him cheap.
Marijauna use does not hamper Josh Gordon’s ability to be entertaining and be a playmaker. He just scored an entertaining touchdown last week, and without him, it wouldn’t have been a tie it would have been a loss.
Marijauna use is against the NFL rules
Josh Gordon has only really played one great season because he can’t follow that rule.
The Cleveland Browns, if they had any brains and did any research, should have known that he couldn’t follow that rule. Their attempt to get a bargain was a huge waste of time and produced little joy and little winning.

Everything else is more complicated and depends on what you as a fan or you as a team owner value.

Do you care if Josh Gordon smokes marijuana or do you want to be entertained and win?

Do the Cleveland Browns care about Josh Gordon? Do the Cleveland Browns want to win?

All I know is that the Cleveland Browns make money, and it is my opinion that making money is their main if only concern.

It’s ironic because the Cleveland Browns team that left town was the first team that dealt with drug use well in the NFL. They had an anonymous program for drug users that helped them recover and kept their players on the field.

I think that Josh Gordon is the most over punished athlete in the history of sports. To me, he violated a silly rule and got way overpunished for it.

Michael Vick brutalized dogs and was welcomed back and adored because Michael Vick was that good and the NFL does not have any rules about brutalizing dogs.

The NFL has a ton of silly rules. One of them just cost Marcus Peters of the Rams (What city are they in now? Cleveland? Los Angeles? St. Louis? I can’t keep track anymore) $13k for having fun.

This is my favorite reaction ever to silly rules.

That’s Marshsawn Lynch making fun of a silly rule in order not to get fined. Notice that only the NFL can make money now from that joke.

Peters was fined for having fun paying tribute to Marshawn Lynch and said that it was worth $13k to him.

It’s all a joke to me.

I think the NFL only cares about making money, and the Browns only care about making money. I think the joke is on the fans that pay all the money to let them make silly rules.

I don’t know if Josh Gordon has a serious drug problem. I don’t know if the Browns know. I don’t think they really care about Josh Gordon at all.

That’s why they lose. They are not smart. They keep on drafting QBs with big names that other scouts say will be busts. They keep on being busts. The Browns keep losing and making money. Brady Quinn, Johnny Manziel … why continue? People have T-shirts with all the names. The fact is they haven’t had a good quarterback since they came back and most winning and entertainment come from having a good QB.

They did the same thing with Baker Mayfield. Could Baker Mayfield be different? Sure, maybe, I guess. We’ll see, but it sure looks like a pattern. The pattern has been losing and making money, while the fans sob and keep buying tickets.

I have friends in Cleveland who hate Josh Gordon more than Michael Vick because Josh Gordon could not follow a silly rule, and it’s hurting their team and their town.

The real one hurting their team and their town is actually the ownership and management of the Cleveland Browns. I think that they don’t care. They asked for a billion dollars for a stadium to help the town that they use maybe ten times a year. Studies have shown that giving NFL teams that much money is equally as effective as tossing a billion dollars from a plane. The Browns now want another billion dollars for another stadium. Meanwhile, the people who really do live in Cleveland, and most can’t afford Browns tickets, are suffering, not learning and killing themselves.

I don’t think the Browns care about that. I don’t think the Browns care about Cleveland. I just think that the Browns put Cleveland on their jerseys (and the only thing they kept when Art Modell took everything else was the jerseys) to make Clevelanders buy tickets to make money.

Modell took the team away and won a Super Bowl with it to make money.

It’s a big joke that I do not find funny. Why does it keep happening over and over again?

It’s only going to stop if people stop being loyal to a team that has shown over and over again that they are not loyal to them.

I hope Josh Gordon beats his substance abuse issues if they are hurting his life. They have most hurt his life because the NFL has a silly rule.

I think cortisone shots, which are legal, are much more dangerous than marijuana for John Gordon. If he was addicted to those, he would still be scoring touchdowns.

Argue about it all you want. Part of the fun of sports is having friendly arguments.

As for the silly marijuana rule, this is the best thing I’ve heard about it. Doug Stanhope analyzes the Ricky Williams situation.

Here is the punch line. “They’ll say drugs ruined Ricky Williams’ career, which is not true, drug testing ruined Ricky Williams’ career.”

I ruined the punchline because the punchline isn’t the message.