The Browns said about all there is to be said about troubled wide receiver Josh Gordon after his DWI arrest this morning.
“We are aware of the matter and are disappointed to learn of the situation,” Browns general Ray Farmer said in a statement, via Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “We will comment further at the appropriate time.”
The Browns can’t say they’re surprised, not after realizing he’d miss most if not all of this season after his latest failed drug test.
But this is a separate issue, since he was endangering others.
Gordon was stopped in Raleigh, N.C. around 3 a.m. Saturday, and charged with driving while impaired. He was jailed, but has already bonded out.
The Browns knew he couldn’t be counted on this year, and brought in free agents Andrew Hawkins, Nate Burleson and Anthony Armstrong. They had the chance to draft a star wideout such as Sammy Watkins, but passed on that opportunity.
“We have to build a football team that can win regardless of who is missing,’' Farmer said in May. “I think that’s the charge that we have. That’s my job, that’s coach [Mike] Pettine’s job is to prepare this football team to win games regardless of who’s missing.”
If they ever thought they’d get Gordon back, they have to know today’s arrest makes it a little less likely.
Unless of course they were already resigned to that.