The next 3 pages are all letters from me, Jared Mueller, the fan. Not the counselor, not the writer, not the editor and not the sane adult. Just a fan, a fanatic.
Dear Josh Gordon,
I am angry with you!
I am angry that you chose to make decisions that put yourself in jeopardy of missing this season. I am not a big fan of playing the victim in any life situation. Bloom where you are planted is a motto that I believe all people can live by, if they choose to. You chose to marinate in many of the same problems, people and situations that led you to have to leave Baylor, not play at Utah and ultimately enter the Supplemental Draft.
I can actually forgive, very easily in fact, your 2 game suspension last year. I believe you were prescribed cough syrup with codeine and since a doctor prescribed it thought you were okay to take it. I get it. Yet if it had not been for your previous positive screen, and history, this wouldn’t of even been a 1 game suspension. Your history meant you had no leniency.
Now whether you were tested 70 times and passed. Whether it was all due to second hand smoke. Whether the NFL rules are ridiculously low for you test positive. Whether it is true that if they had tested your B sample first instead of your A sample we wouldn’t be having this conversation. I am angry with you that you allowed yourself to be in this situation.
I realize that it could have been second hand smoke. Stop being around it. Stop driving around in your really nice car with your boys who are smoking it, even if you are not. I realize it is hard to cut connections with people who have been a part of your life for years. But I am a fan of the Cleveland Browns and you are a professional football player for the team I love. I want better for you.
First and foremost I hope you get your life together. Stop using, or being around substances, that could get you in trouble with your employer. Yes I realize that weed is legal in some states and will be in more sooner rather then later, but until it is legal in the NFL stop it. Stop speeding. Stop borrowing random folks cars who you barely know, but since you are both professional athletes you think it is cool. Get rehab treatment if you need it. Get counseling on whatever the root problem is that led you to use substances for so long.
Then get back on the football field. Show the Browns and the fans that the game means a lot to you. Don’t loaf on plays. Don’t take plays off. Don’t be a negative influence on other young players. Learn from your mistakes and come back and dominate the league for the legion of fans that love our team.
Get the order right and the rest will take care of itself. The fans will embrace you. You will stay clean. A new contract will be around the corner and records will fall.
Sincerely,
Jared Mueller – Just a Fan
A Letter to the NFL and Roger Goodell
Dear NFL and Roger Goodell,
I am angry with you!
Your handling of the Josh Gordon situation, from the outside looking in, was horrendous. Instead of moving forward with the process early in May it was delayed until a final ruling at the end of August. Instead of addressing Gordon and the Cleveland Browns in a timely manner you chose to take your sweet time and impact the team and player.
I think your policies and procedures, from what I understand of them, are poorly written and often seem like you do whatever you want with them anyways. If true, Gordon’s B sample was below your minuscule line for testing positive. Yet because the A sample was barely above you still chose to follow your P&P to their letter.
Yet instead of a 3 person panel, as has been described as the appeals process in the past, you had 1 person handle Gordon’s appeal. Letter of the law when it comes to samples but not the appeals process? Terrible.
Yet a few days prior to the announcement of the Gordon suspension being upheld, you announced that Matt Prater was being suspended for 4 games. Yep Prater was scheduled to be suspended, by the letter of your law, for the full season but was only suspended for 4 games. He never even had an appeals process. You negotiated with his lawyer, but not Gordon’s? I mean I know he is a kicker, but again you didn’t follow the letter of your own law.
I am not one to bring up the Ray Rice situation, I am glad you fixed that quickly. Yet if protecting the shield is as important to you as you say it is, how can you let such dichotomous suspensions happen? Prater and Gordon deserved the same suspension. Maybe Gordon gets another game or two for his DUI, that would be fair.
I am glad to read that Gordon can apply for reinstatement, possibly, at the end of the 2014 season. Yet there again you aren’t following your letter of the law. Based on your policies Gordon should not be able to apply for reinstatement until 365 days later. It benefits Gordon and the team but still shows the problem with your handling of this situation.
Finally stop banning players from their support systems with their team. A guy who has a problem with a recreational drug and is then suspended from work has a ton more recreational time. Not exactly caring for the player there are you? I also understand why the league, and the CFL, won’t let Gordon play up north but since you technically kicked him out of the league indefinitely and didn’t suspend him, at least if you followed your policies, what right do you have to deny him work? He doesn’t work for you at this moment. Let him do something. No work, no money sounds like something right out of a movie, a movie a lot about smoking weed (Warning Explicit Word):
Please get your act together. I know I am not alone. You know it is bad when other teams’ fans think the Browns got the short end of the stick.
Sincerely,
Jared Mueller – Just a Fan
A Letter to the Cleveland Browns
Aug 23, 2014; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam during warm ups before the game against the St. Louis Rams at FirstEnergy Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
Dear Cleveland Browns,
I am angry with you!
Now I am much more angry with both Josh Gordon and the NFL than I am with you. However you are not off the hook.
You knew the second day of the draft, and from the information I have long before that, that Gordon was likely to be suspended. In a draft full of promising receivers you did nothing. If you knew, like I think you did, about Gordon near the start of free agency, you also passed on a ton of receivers in the free agent market. Receivers who didn’t break the bank on their new contracts, that you could have slightly overpaid to get them.
You could have signed Julian Edelman along with Andrew Hawkins and given yourself a solid 3 some along with Miles Austin once Gordon was suspended. If Gordon doesn’t get suspended you could have a group of 4 receivers that could challenge the defenses, along with Jordan Cameron, in a 5 wide set. Edelman is just the example, you could have done much more.
Instead now the feeling of the same old Browns is starting to kick in. Was it overconfidence in Gordon getting off? Was it arrogance that Kyle Shanahan can make any receiver look good? Were you giving up on the season before it even started by not addressing a need area? Or do you really think you can win in today’s NFL with running and defense?
I am not even harping on the Sammy Watkins trade. Great job there. That Bills pick plus Justin Gilbert was a steal. I don’t care what Watkins becomes, you make that trade everyday. Heck if Johnny Manziel is terrible you might have two shots next year at a high pick QB.
Yet here we sit, with the 4th Pre-Season game about to start and we have 2 starting receivers whose old teams didn’t try hard to keep them. Heck Hawkins could have been kept by the Bengals, being a restricted free agent and all, but they let him go to their in state, division rivals. Don’t get me wrong I love Hawkins as a #3 receiver. He doesn’t have the size to live up to the #1 spot. And no I don’t think the aging, tight hamstring’d Miles Austin does either.
I feel like you let us down with poor planning. You have the most dedicated fans in the world, yet you seem to be willing to take us for granted. Why do you think that is okay? Please prove me wrong. Please show me that there is a plan, that you can make it work and this isn’t the same ol’ Browns.
Thankfully I will never turn my back on my teams. I cheer for the front of the jersey, not the back. I will still get very excited when things go well and very upset when they don’t. That is the fan base that you have. While others are fair weather, we are all weather. Give us something to believe in again.
Just the first few seconds apply totally:
I see a beautiful team rising from this abyss. Help me to see it all the clearer.
Sincerely,
Jared Mueller – Just a Fan