Browns suspend Gordon, fine Manziel

WR Gordon

suspended for violation

By MARY KAY CABOT

Northeast Ohio Media Group

BALTIMORE

Browns All-Pro receiver Josh Gordon won’t be going out with a bang in 2014.

The NFL’s reigning receiving yardage leader has been suspended by the Browns for today’s season finale against the Ravens for violation of team rules. A source told cleveland.com that he missed the walk-through on Saturday morning in Berea before the team headed to Baltimore.

Rookie quarterback Johnny Manziel, who vowed this week that he’s matured and is “not the same Johnny Manziel that showed up here’’ in May, was also late Saturday morning for treatment on his pulled hamstring and will be fined. He’s on injured reserve and couldn’t participate in the walk-through — but it didn’t go well in the building that he was late nevertheless.

Manziel has already been lectured by the Browns several times this season, including one for his offseason escapades and once after being involved in a fight at his apartment building at 2:36 a.m. — hours before the walk-through and trip to Atlanta.

ESPN.com’s Pat McManamon and Jeremy Fowler reported that the Browns sent security to Manziel’s home when he didn’t show up for treatment.

Gordon’s absence means that rookie quarterback Connor Shaw, who was elevated from the practice squad Saturday and will start his first NFL game here, will not have the team’s best wideout available to him.

The suspension was the next step for Gordon, who has been late to other team functions this season and fined for it.

It’s also huge because it costs Gordon his accrued season for 2014 and prevents him from hitting the open market after next season and thus could potentially cost him millions of dollars. He now must wait until 2016 to become an unrestricted free agent.

An accrued season is six games, and Gordon has been active for five.

When Gordon’s minimum year-long ban for marijuana was reduced to 10 games in September, the Browns got cheated out of a year of rights to Gordon, because the six remaining games would’ve counted as an accrued season.

If he had played all six, he would’ve become an unrestricted free agent after next season and potentially hit paydirt after the year. The top receivers in the NFL make anywhere from about $11 million a year to more than $16 million a year.

For comparison’s sake, Gordon is averaging $1.33 million over his four-year rookie contract, which now expires after 2016.

With 2014 now not an accrued season, Gordon will be an unrestricted free agent after 2015, which means a team can make him an offer that the Browns would have the chance to match.

So it appears that the Browns have gotten that lost year back -- unless Gordon’s legal team files a grievance and wins.

Gordon’s team, which fought hard to have his drug ban overturned but ultimately lost the appeal (the suspension was reduced when the drug policy was revised), will undoubtedly not go down with a fight in this case.

If they do file the grievance, they’ll try to demonstrate that the Browns suspended Gordon to keep him from being unrestricted after next year.

The Browns will have to prove that the ban came after a series of violations and sanctions, and that Gordon’s transgression was worse than anyone else’s on the team this year -- since no one else has been suspended.

That’s why Manziel’s tardiness on Saturday is significant. Gordon’s advisors can use him as an example of a player who has violated several team rules and not been suspended, including being involved in the fight hours before the team’s walk-through on Nov. 22nd.

Other players, such as No. 8 overall pick Justin Gilbert, have been late for multiple team functions this season and not been suspended. Gilbert and rookie running back Terrance West have been benched or had playing time cut, but haven’t been suspended.

But the Browns felt they had no choice since Gordon was not merely late but missed the whole walk-through.