Josh Gordon has been reinstated by the NFL after three years of exile for multiple violations of the league’s substance abuse problem. He claims that he will stay sober, and that he has the ability to prove he’s the best receiver ever, one who will make it to the Hall of Fame. But Sports Illustrated writes that both Gordon and his manager, Michael Johnson, seem desperate to convince you that he can stay sober and return to football in order to monetize his comeback story. What do you believe?
Gordon, who told Sports Illustrated that he didn’t plan on ever living past 18-years-old, is not shy when talking about his past. He willing told the magazine about his “gangbanging, drug-dealing, carjackings, and armed robberies and shootouts he says he took part in.” But Johnson wants the full narrative to be given out only for profit. He vaguely mentioned to Sports Illustrated a reference to book and movie deals that he and Gordon hope to secure.
Gordon, meanwhile, is on a public and private journey to get and stay sober and reclaim his future. That journey will continue this Sunday, when Gordon suits up for the first regular-season NFL game since Dec. 21, 2014 when the Browns play the Chargers.
The early reviews of Gordon’s comeback have been promising, Sports Illustrated writes, but this isn’t the first time he’s asking the football world for another chance – it’s his ninth or 10th. He’s been suspended on five separate occasions since 2013. And since then, his story has suffered inconsistencies as he struggles to protect his narrative.
Johnson and Gordon both want fans to believe he’s changed. Sports Illustrated writes that maybe the “reality of having to care for a now two-year-old daughter, of scraping by without an NFL salary for three years, has forced Gordon to get his life together and salvage his career.” The duo wants you to be on board with the idea that above all, this is the time Josh Gordon regains everything he lost.
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