Cleveland Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon has admitted that he has put his career in jeopardy following a positive test for alcohol.
The 23-year-old reportedly failed a test for the third time in his career as he breached the NFL's policy regarding substances of abuse, which could see him suspended for a year by the league.
Gordon has insisted that he willingly agreed to the protocol of the league to abstain from alcohol, and feels that he has put his career in the NFL in doubt because of his third infraction.
He wrote on Medium.com: "As a strict condition to my reinstatement in week 12, I had to agree not only to abstain from drinking for the rest of the season, but also to submit to an alcohol screen as part of my in-season drug testing under the league's substance-abuse protocol.
"Did I think that was excessive given I had never had any issue whatsoever with alcohol? Yes. Did I think it was hypocritical that a professional league making hundreds of millions of dollars off beer sponsorships was telling me not to drink? Yes. Did I so much as blink at the condition? No.
"It doesn't matter if I thought that the league-imposed restriction on drinking had expired at the end of the regular season; what matters is that I didn't confirm whether or not that was the case. Now, that oversight has further jeopardised my relationship with my team and our fans, my reputation, and maybe even my career."
Gordon was named an All-Pro for his displays in the 2013 season, but then was suspended for the first 10 games of the 2014 campaign after falling foul of the NFL's substance-abuse policy.
Simon Sinclair
