Josh Gordon Explains How Baylor Coaches Helped Him Cheat On His College Drug Tests
“I’ve been enabled most of my life. I’ve been enabled by coaches, teachers, professors, everybody, pretty much, gave me a second chance because of my ability. Not too long after I got arrested for possession of marijuana at Baylor, one of my coaches came by saying, ‘You are going to get drug tested by the compliance office. This is how it’s going to work, this is what they are going to do. If they do call you in, here goes these bottles of detox.’ He showed me how to drink them, showed me how to take them. That was my first experience with, like, getting over on the system and the authority not really being serious because it was kind of being guided by someone who was employed by the university.”
So if his coaches were helping him, how’d he end up failing a test?
Gordon explained that by saying at the time his mindset was, “I’m out of detox drinks. Where is coach with my drinks? Not enough time, got to take a drug test, failed the drug test.”
“I’ve used alcohol on many, many occasions, Xanax on many occasions, cocaine several occasions, marijuana most of my life, codeine, cough syrup, methazine — very prevalent where I’m from. It’s what I grew up using,” Gordon said.
Oh man what a shocker, Baylor coaches under Art Briles weren’t doing things by the book. Honestly with the legit waterfall of allegations about Baylor over the past year I don’t think this one will even register. NCAA investigators probably skimming right over it – Josh Gordon’s drug use and cheating on tests with assistance from coaches is like, 1,283,083 on the list of infractions right now.
I obviously have no problem piling on Baylor for what seems to be one of the most out of control programs maybe ever. And enabling a kid with a clear drug issue just to make sure he is eligible to play some football is obviously very problematic. But I’d also make sure the fair share of blame is on Gordon himself. You can pass the buck to everyone around you and single out all the enablers but at the end of the day you’re the one needlessly blowing opportunities that 99.9% of the population would kill for.
That’s not to say he’s a bad guy, of course. I mean, people laugh and roll their eyes when they hear “weed addiction.” Weed, xanax, coke, codeine, cough syrup, methazine… that’s a clear addiction issue, and addiction is no fucking joke. It’s naive and unrealistic but you’d like to at least hope that these college coaches who are role models and guiding figures for 18 year olds would put their well-being over their touchdown potential. But that would get an even harder laugh and eye roll than the weed addiction.