You can't say Blackmon is being treated differently because he hasn't made the details of his situation public to analyze like Gordon has. Heck, we don't even know if Blackmon made any attempt to appeal in the first place.

 

Gordon isn't appealing disciplinary action for his arrests. He is appealing the 1 year suspension for his failed drug test and he has a valid case based on the NFL's own statements.

 

The NFL's statement that they have no intention of suspending players for being around second hand smoke and their extremely low threshold for getting a positive, 1/10th the amount of any other sport and the federal work place, contradicts each other.

 

Gordon's test result of 16 ng/ml is just 1 ng over the the threshold of 15 ng/ml and is considered by experts to be consistent with the amount someone would score only exposed to second hand smoke during the week prior to the test and Gordon is claiming that is exactly what had happened to him.

 

Having worked professionally with unions for years, any ambiguity or contradiction in policy pretty much always goes in favor of the union employee. Gordon will get off of the mandatory 1 year suspension.

 

This isn't some conspiracy by Goodell. Gordon was lucky enough, or possibly his claim is the actual truth, that his score fell within the parameters of second hand smoke. He was also fortunate enough to have a legal team who were savvy enough to recognize this.

 

The bottom line is Gordon will only face whatever disciplinary action handed down for his arrests and the league will be forced to rewrite their drug policy.

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