Browns safety Donte Whitner has heard people say the Browns should cut Josh Gordon, who was recently arrested for DWI and is facing a one-year suspension for violations of the NFL’s substance abuse policy. And Whitner thinks those people are wrong.
Whitner says that what Gordon needs is support from the Browns, not for the team to cut him loose.
“It’s a big blow to us. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t, it’s not a big blow,” Whitner said on SiriusXM NFL Radio. “But the thing is, we have to rally around him. I know all the things people say -- ‘he should be cut, he should be this’ -- he shouldn’t. He’s a 23-year-old kid. He made some mistakes. A lot of people’s 20-year-old sons make mistakes. We have to help him, and that’s the bottom line. We have to help him collectively. It’s not going be one person that helps him, it’s not going to be two people that help him. I’m talking about from the front office, the coaching staff, the players and his whole family. We have to help him not only for football purposes, but for life purposes to get his life in order.”
Unless Gordon’s appeal is successful, he won’t play for the Browns until 2015 at the earliest. But Whitner believes that whenever the NFL says Gordon can play, he should play for the Browns.