BEREA (92.3 The Fan) – Cleveland Browns receiver Josh Gordon is ready to go toe to toe with the NFL.
Gordon, who has an appeal hearing scheduled for Friday in New York, hired attorney Maurice Suh to represent him according to the Associated Press. Suh helped Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman win an appeal for a suspension in 2012 on the grounds of a faulty test.
Tuesday afternoon Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com detailed the circumstances surrounding Gordon’s appeal.
“Urine samples routinely are split into two bottles, the “A” bottle and the “B” bottle. If the “A” bottle generates a positive result, the “B” bottle is tested. Amazingly, the “B” bottle doesn’t have to independently show a violation. Instead, the substance abuse policy states that the “‘B’ bottle Test need only show that the substance, revealed in the ‘A’ bottle Test, is evident to the ‘limits of detection’ to confirm the results of the ‘A’ bottle Test.
For Gordon, the “A” bottle showed a concentration of 16 ng/ml, only one nanogram per milliliter above the limits of 15. The “B” bottle showed a concentration of 13.6 ng/ml — less than the threshold.
But because the “A” bottle was labeled “A” and not “B” and because the “B” bottle was labeled “B” and not “A”, the end result is a positive and a minimum one-year banishment from the NFL. Flip the bottles when it’s time to apply the labels, and Gordon isn’t facing a suspension.”
Florio also reports that Gordon has passed at least 70 drug tests since entering stage 3 of the league’s substance abuse program last year.
Gordon is facing an indefinite suspension under the league’s substance abuse policy for a failed drug test earlier this year. While he awaits his hearing, the Pro Bowler has been at training camp with the Browns and has slowly worked his way up the rep chart.
On Tuesday Gordon’s reps with the first team offense increased. When camp started on Saturday Gordon worked mostly with the third team offense.
“He’s trying to be positive,” Pro Bowl tight end Jordan Cameron said after Monday’s practice. “It’s one of those things, he doesn’t know. It’s up in the air right now. It’s hard for him to have a say either way, so he’s just grinding. He’s out here every day and he’s working hard and that’s all you can ask of him.”
Gordon, who failed at least three drug tests in college for marijuana, was suspended for 2 games last season and fined 4 game checks for a failed test due to codeine,s banned substance, that was in prescribed cough syrup.
Despite missing 2 games, he still led the league in yards receiving with 1,646 and broke several team records. The 23-year-old reportedly checked into rehab following a recent DWI arrest in Raleigh, North Carolina earlier this month.
(TM and Copyright 2014 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2014 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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