Cleveland Browns WR Josh Gordon Fast Becoming the NFL's Version of MLB's Josh Hamilton

This is one of those things you can't help but shake your head at. Cleveland Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon--a potential superstar waiting to explode--has been arrested yet again. This time it was for driving impaired at around 3 AM Saturday morning.

With the ruling on his upcoming suspension is scheduled to come down sometime later this month the timing could not be worse (not that there is good timing for something like this of course).

@ESPNNFL/Twitter

This is one of those stories that when you stumble across it online you want to think it can't be true. There is no way that someone could be so foolish as to drink and drive within days of a drug suspension coming down.

Some of the folks breaking the story had to be thinking that to so they tweeted some proof to back up what they were saying:

Oh. RT @GinaBeana87: @DustinFox37 not good... pic.twitter.com/N2BxgPAe3H
— Dustin Fox (@DustinFox37) July 5, 2014

It seems that he was pulled over for going 50 in a 35 around 3 AM in Raleigh. Official records don't specify whether he was drunk or high; just that he was driving while impaired.

This shouldn't affect the ruling that is set to come down, but it will affect his future in the NFL. Last season he led the NFL in receiving even though he missed a couple games due to a drug suspension. He apparently didn't learn anything than since he is about to be suspended again.

How can anyone put any faith in a player with his track record?

Some might think that is too harsh, but when you consider how he got in to the NFL it is more than fair. He had been suspended twice at Baylor for positive drug tests (second indefinite). He transferred to Utah, sat out the '11 season, but after another failed test he declared for the '12 supplemental draft where he was taken by the Browns.

One of his former teammates said it best on Twitter:

If you're close to Josh Gordon please help this kid, it's not about football anymore it's about picking up the pieces of his life.
— D'Qwell Jackson (@DQ52) July 5, 2014

At this point it is more about getting control over his life and not the game. Hopefully someone in his life will--if not him--will do what's necessary to help him get straight.

His story is reminiscent of the beginning of Los Angeles Angles outfielder Josh Hamilton's career. Like Gordon, Hamilton had the world at his feet at a young age, but substance abuse issues took him out of the game. Luckily, he was able to overcome them to have the career that he has had.

Hopefully Josh Gordon can do the same thing.

[ESPN]

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