Cleveland Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon has officially filed a grievance over the suspension that ended his 2014 NFL season.
According to a story by Pro Football Talk, the NFL Players Association is filing a grievance on behalf of Browns receiver Josh Gordon over his Week 17 suspension last season.
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The grievance was expected to come by many, as Gordon is hoping to get a sixth game to credit towards his impending free agency. Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that the grievance has officially been filed on Tuesday.
The grievance is not over the game check that Gordon lost when the Browns suspended him, but rather because he lost the chance to have six games on the year, which gives him a year of credit towards free agency. Five games isn’t enough to count a season towards free agency. With six games giving him a season towards free agency, Gordon would become a free agent after the 2016 season. If he loses his grievance and then only has five games, he will not become a free agent until after the 2017 season.
Players do not get to count a year towards free agency unless they have been on a roster for at least six games. Since Gordon was suspended for the first 10 games of 2014, he only had six games left to play, and ended up only playing in five due to the Week 17 suspension.
Of course, Gordon has a lot more problems than just establishing when his free agency begins. He’s still suspended for the 2015 season and he’ll need to really focus on staying out of trouble during that time so that he can be reinstated for the 2016 season. Then he’ll have to stay out of trouble again and play well in the 2016 season so that some team might take a chance on him in 2017. That’s assuming he wins his grievance.
That’s a pretty tall order for a guy who hasn’t been able to stay out of trouble during his college and pro career. After all, he barely made it back from one suspension before being hit with another. As part of his current suspension, he has to pass 10 league-mandated drug tests per month for the next 12 months in order to have any chance at returning to the field.
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