Warning: Story contains coarse language
While there were rumors of Josh Gordon's rights being shopped in advance of last week's trade deadline, he remains with the Cleveland Browns, and he returned to the team facility this week as part of his conditional reinstatement.
When he's eligible to return to the field in Week 13, he'll be joining a team buried at the bottom of the standings and likely eliminated from playoff contention, barring some miraculous second-half run, with a little help from around the league.
He isn't letting that dampen his enthusiasm.
"I'm here to help the team win," Gordon said, according to ESPN's Pat McManamon. "That's my first priority. Being the best football player I can be - that comes first and foremost. Anything else after that I have no control over. I'm here to help this team win and do that the best way I know now. That's being the best wide receiver."
Gordon is the only receiver ever to record back-to-back games with more than 200 receiving yards, but he's been limited to just 35 career games due to a series of off-field issues.
In a recent tell-all interview with GQ's Clay Skipper, Gordon confessed to playing "probably every game of (his) career" under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol.
Now wanting to be the best ever at his position, Gordon's already come a long way from doubting he'd ever get the chance to play again.
"I said, 'If I plan on having any type of a career, I'll stop.' But at this point I thought, If I want any type of a life, if I wanted to live, (I’ll stop). It was like, 'You're never going back to fucking work ever, if you can't figure out how to live. Because at this point in time, the trajectory, you're going to die. You're going to kill yourself,'" said Gordon.
