Former NFL receiver Josh Gordon will return to the sport in the fan-controlled home football league, as he was a member of the Zappers, team owner Bob Samb said on Saturday. Menery, at ESPN.
Gordon will join former NFL quarterback Johnny Manziel on that team’s roster.
The league, which began playing this month, features 7-7 games where fans establish player lists, invite plays, and interact in a mix of traditional and sporting environments.
Gordon’s NFL career, over and over again, encountered another hurdle last month as a member of the Seattle Seahawks, when he was suspended indefinitely after the league terminated his conditional reinstatement.
An NFL spokesman told ESPN at the time that the decision stemmed from Gordon, 29, who violated the terms of his conditional reinstatement under the league’s substance abuse policy. No other league details were provided.
The league suspended Gordon indefinitely in December 2019 for violations of its policies on substance abuse and performance-enhancing substances. This was Gordon’s sixth suspension since the 2013 season and the fifth for some type of substance abuse, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
Gordon was conditionally reinstated by the NFL in December and began practicing with the Seahawks in the final two weeks of the regular season. Coach Pete Carroll said at the time that he had a chance to play Week 16 against the Los Angeles Rams. But that same week, the NFL placed him on the commissioner’s list of exemptions.
Gordon signed a one-year deal with the Seahawks before it started last season. In 63 NFL games, he has 247 receptions, 4,252 yards and 20 touchdowns. It was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the second round of the 2012 NFL Supplemental Draft, after playing for Utah and Baylor.
FCF teams play a six-week schedule, with live games on Twitch from a rented establishment in Atlanta. Games last about an hour and the field is 50 by 35 yards with final 10-yard areas.
Players have backgrounds at the FBS and FCS college levels, along with the CFL, XFL and Futsal League, Manziel among them.
Prior to the FCF, 28-year-old Manziel last played in April 2019 in the American Football Alliance and has also played in The Spring League and CFL since the Browns released him in 2015. Manziel and Gordon were teammates in Cleveland.