Joe Haden returned to the Browns Monday after his four-game suspension, apologizing to the team and its fans.
Haden tested positive for Adderall, and called it a “very dumb mistake.”
“It was just a young man making a decision I shouldn’t have made,” he said, via Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Asked if he thought the suspension was excessive, he replied, hilariously: “God, do I?”
In his absence, the Browns went 0-4 (which they may well have done in his presence), but he said the last four weeks have been difficult for him.
“I would like to apologize to my fans, Haden Nation, the Cleveland Browns organization, front office, all the coaches. I hurt a lot of people,” he said. “I hurt myself for sure. But I hurt a lot of people with the decision I made, and I just want everybody to know that I sincerely apologize from the bottom of my heart. There’s no script. Nobody told me what to say. I just feel that and I want everybody to know that it was a mistake.
“Everybody makes mistakes, but my mistake happened to hurt a lot more people than I thought.”
And whether it falls under league guidelines or not, he at least deserves a kangaroo court fine for declaring “Haden Nation,” which is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve heard all day.
UPDATE 4:37 p.m. ET: OK, apparently “Haden Nation,” is the name of his charitable foundation. Which isn’t nearly as ridiculous as it sounded without that context. I will now fine myself, with the check payable to the Human Fund.