The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Gordon recounts past life of crime in SI
Josh Gordon, in his most revealing confession yet, told Sports Illustrated he carried a gun and stole cars and was involved in counterfeiting while in high school and that he made about $10,000 a month selling marijuana while in college at Baylor.
Gordon can play in his first NFL game in nearly three years Dec. 3 against the Chargers in Los Angeles if the Browns activate him before then. He was reinstated by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Nov. 1 after missing all of 2015 and 2016 and now 11 games in 2017 for violating NFL substance abuse policies.
“If I was going to be a thug or a gangster,” Gordon told Ben Baskin in the story published Nov. 28, “I was going to be the best gangster out there.
“I didn’t plan on living past 18. Not a chance.”
Gordon, now 26, told Baskin he carried a .38 special while at school and was involved in numerous gun battles. He said he was shot in the left arm during his junior year and several times had to shoot to escape fights. He said he never “maliciously” shot anyone.
Gordon stole cars in high school by shattering a window or manipulating the locking mechanism, according to the story. His partner would hot-wire the car. He also broke into empty homes as part of a three-man crew to steal electronics.
“Whenever (the gang) could use you, exploit you on anything that puts you in danger of going to prison, (I’d) be the guy,” Gordon told Baskin.
Gordon said joined a gang, the Six Deuce Harvard Park Brim Bloods, when he was a sophomore at Lamar High School. The gang would spend $100 for $2,000 in counterfeit money. Gordon said he would use a large bill for five $1 cheeseburgers at McDonald’s and get real money back as change.
Gordon said he received as much as six pounds of marijuana a week by mail when he was a sophomore at Baylor. The pot was vacuum-sealed and wrapped in Mylar, sprayed with kerosene and covered in coffee beans to mask the smell, according to the article. Gordon sold the marijuana in Dallas, Austin and San Antonio and made a profit of $10,000 a month.
The interview for the Sports Illustrated story was done in Gainesville, Fla., in an apartment belonging to Gordon’s manager, Michael Johnson, about three weeks before Gordon was reinstated, with Johnson present.
Gordon told Baskin he quit smoking marijuana early in his NFL career and that he drank only socially. That is consistent with what he would tell the Cleveland media when he was reinstated after a 10-game suspension in 2014. But that is not what Gordon told GQ in an interview done Nov. 1 not long before meeting with Goodell on the same day.
Gordon told GQ he would smoke marijuana, drink or have something in his system for almost every game he played. Gordon told reporters in Cleveland he told Goodell everything that was in the GQ article.
Baskin wrote Gordon called him back and admitted lying, presumably to Baskin. Johnson, according to Baskin, is trying to sell Gordon’s story in a movie or book deal.
“We got other projects we’re doing,” Baskin quotes Johnson as saying. “I can’t give you his whole life story when you’re not even guaranteeing me the cover (of Sports Illustrated). Because, first off, we are not getting paid for this.”
Gordon insists he is sober now. He passed a random urine test with no problem during the Sports Illustrated interview, according to Baskin.