Josh Gordon, wide receiver of The Browns, is now one of a number of NFL stars who is coming clean about suffering from addiction and shining a light on sports stars who need help in drug and alcohol rehab centers.
As GQ reports, Gordon hasn’t been able to complete a season since his 2012 due to substance abuse. Out of 1,052 missed days on the field, he spent over 100 of them in rehab. He recently got another chance to play for the NFL, provided he provide clean drug tests and attend AA meetings.
Gordon admits that he probably wasn’t sober for “every game” of his NFL career. He’s taken several trips to drug and alcohol rehab centers, and was afraid to admit he needed help because of “the stigma that was attached with it.” Yet rehab proved to be a great equalizer in this regard. “Being at the facility I was at, you got world-renowned doctors in there, lawyers, engineers. I was like, I can definitely throw my hands up and [be] willing to do whatever, and go to any length. I need to fully buy into the program.”
Gordon classified himself as a “high functioning alcoholic,” but he “definitely pushed the limit. You see other guys kinda doing it [in the NFL], but I would take it to another level a lot of times. Feeling as though I was being enabled, I thought it was an okay thing to do: Well, this is the norm. And it wasn’t.”
Gordon is now coming clean about suffering from addiction and his time in alcohol rehab centers because “It’s beneficial for me at this point. The more I get it out, the more I feel better about it…It’s therapeutic for me.
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