DanoT wrote:Since marijuana is not a performance enhancing drug, I don't think it is on the CFL's banned substance list. Kinda makes the not being able to play in the CFL for Gordon very ironic.
Agreed, but it's not the CFL's stance (whatever it is with regard to pot) that's preventing Josh Gordon playing up here, but, rather the Browns' unwillingness to let him. He's still under contract to them and has not been cut. The Browns' stance seems reasonable to me; Gordon is a valuable commodity, and the team is probably concerned about his being injured and unable to return to action after the suspension is served.
I think there are two issues here. The first is whether the penalty for pot use is proportionate, given the far-more-serious actions (like domestic violence) that have drawn comparatively lax punishment. As was pointed out in the piece above by Eric Macramalla, however, this comparison does not have legal implications, since one infraction is covered by the CBA and the other is at the discretion of the NFL. To many, though, it certainly has moral implications. I agree that having a one-year suspension dropped on Josh Gordon for marginal pot use at the same time that Ray Rice is suspended for only 2 games for cold-cocking his then-fiancé, now-wife seems disproportionate in the extreme.
The second, and less important, issue is the point I was trying to make in my previous post, namely that it is hypocritical for a player who's busted for pot to characterize a league official as lacking discretion and judgment when it was that player's lack of discretion and judgment in the first place that led to the suspension. The league has a rule in place (whether it's a good rule or not), and players are exercising terrible judgment by breaking it. This can hardly be seen as justifiable civil disobedience. They're letting down their team, the fans, and ultimately themselves by disregarding a clearly-stated rule--whether it's a good rule or not. It was interesting last season when Seahawks Brandon Browner and Walter Thurmond were suspended (the former for PED use, the latter for "substance abuse" meaning something other than PEDs), that the sentiment among at least some of their teammates was that these were selfish actions that hurt the team--and, by extension, showed a lack of judgment.