My wife was asking me about Gordon last night. I guess we are used to NFL players with any type of problem being selfish team cancers or a bunch of other vices. So, when explaining to her why no one wanted him, I found myself unable to really say he isn’t a good overall guy. He has a substance abuse problem, albeit a very bad one, which I’m sure we can all relate to either personally or through loved ones. But some of the things that you can’t say about Gordon gives me some hope and really makes me want to root for this guy.
1. He’s not a locker room cancer. No one on the Browns ever indicated he wasn’t a good teammate.
2. He’s not a selfish egomaniac in the mold of Antonio Brown/Dez Bryant/OBJ and a variety of talented WRs.
3. He’s never, to my knowledge, committee a violent crime, a DUI, domestic abuse, etc.
4. I was looking at his Twitter and there are an overwhelming amount of Browns fan really rooting for this guy. It seems like despite all of his setbacks and that he is playing for another team, he still has a lot of respect and appreciation. That’s pretty rare. I imagine Clevelanders really liked his character.
5. Not that this is a reason to like him, but the guy is very smart. He scored as high on his Wonderlic as most QBs, so it’s not that surprising he seems to be catching on quickly.
All that said, there are so many annoying, selfish, attention seeking turds in the NFL who I just can’t root for. Other than Gordon’s severe addiction issues (which I believe are mostly genetic and more like a disease), he really seems like a likeable guy, and it feels great to root for him.
