Former Baylor football player Josh Gordon said that coaches at the school would provide him with instructions on how to pass drug tests.
Gordon, who is currently serving a suspension from the NFL for violating the league’s substance abuse policies, appeared in a video documentary titled JOSH GORDON | Ready For His Comeback for UNINTERRUPTED where he describes the situation.
According to the Dallas Morning News, as a sophomore at Baylor, Gordon was arrested when police found him and a teammate in a car with marijuana. Gordon was suspended at the time.
“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,’ ” Gordon says in the video. “He showed me how to drink them, showed me how to take them, and that was, I think, my first real experience in getting over on the system, and that authority not really being taken serious because it was kind of being guided by somebody that’s employed by the same university.”
Gordon was suspended the following year by then-coach Art Briles for failing a drug test. Even though he was allegedly made aware of the drug tests ahead of time, Gordon said that he expected coaches to provide him with the detox drinks.
“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,” he says.
Gordon described the situation at Baylor as one that enabled his behavior.
“I’ve been enabled by coaches, teachers, professors, everybody pretty much gave me a second chance just because of my ability,” he says.
Current Baylor Coach Matt Rhule was asked to respond to the situation Gordon described in a press conference on Tuesday.
“I think they’ve done a really nice job here of making sure that there’s protocol, so that I can’t circumvent anything, which I wouldn’t do anyways,” Rhule said.
