Yesterday, we heard that former Cowboys defensive tackle Josh Brent will meet with commissioner Roger Goodell within the next week or so in an effort to be reinstated into the NFL. However, that’s not the only meeting with a player on Goodell’s schedule for the next week and a half. According to ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter, the commish will also meet with 49ers linebacker Aldon Smith on August 8, and will sit down with Browns wideout Josh Gordon sometime before then.
Both Smith and Gordon are facing suspensions for off-field actions. In Smith’s case, three felony gun charges, a DUI, and an alleged fake bomb threat loom large, and are expected to result in a multi-game ban. As for Gordon, who is facing a possible one-year suspension for violating the league’s substance-abuse policy, his appeal hearing remains scheduled for tomorrow, according to Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer (Twitter link). Gordon’s reps will argue that his failed test was a result of second-hand smoke, and that if his two urine samples had arbitrarily flipped labels, he would have passed the test.
Goodell, who previously had established a reputation as a strict disciplinarian, has been under scrutiny for the lenient punishment he handed down to Ravens running back Ray Rice, who only received a two-game ban following an ugly domestic abuse case involving his then-fiancée.