Schefter: Gregory Withdraws Appeal Of Suspension

VA Cowboy

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Jerry never learns trying to chase first rounders with issues in the 2nd round.

Gregory can't get on the field with his off-field issues. And even before his suspension he looked undersized and nowhere near the pre-draft top 10 rating he had. Jaylon Smith has a major injury and may never get back to anywhere close to where he was before he got hurt.
Bruce Carter overcame his injury and was adequate but never lived up to his pre-injury mid first rating.
Even as good as Sean Lee has been he has been injured off and on his entire career.

It's just asinine to waste 2nd round picks year after year trying to chase a steal when maybe one of four pans out. This is where teams load up on the core of their team and we just take risk after risk and then wonder why we can't get to or advance in the playoffs.
 

townsend

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Jerry never learns trying to chase first rounders with issues in the 2nd round.

Gregory can't get on the field with his off-field issues. And even before his suspension he looked undersized and nowhere near the pre-draft top 10 rating he had. Jaylon Smith has a major injury and may never get back to anywhere close to where he was before he got hurt.
Bruce Carter overcame his injury and was adequate but never lived up to his pre-injury mid first rating.
Even as good as Sean Lee has been he has been injured off and on his entire career.

It's just asinine to waste 2nd round picks year after year trying to chase a steal when maybe one of four pans out. This is where teams load up on the core of their team and we just take risk after risk and then wonder why we can't get to or advance in the playoffs.
I'm way more mad about Smith than Gregory. We grabbed Gregory with a late 2nd rounder. Smith was the 34th pick of the draft, we should've had a 1st rounder there. But jumped at a guy New England was rumored to take 20-something picks later.
 

Carp

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Not sure why he would drop the appeal if he literally got zero benefit for himself? That's like one of my clients taking a plea deal for the max sentence. What is the motivation in that?
Sometimes it is just best to shut up and take your medicine. Dragging stuff out like that often times make matters worse. Just draws more attention.
 

Cowboysrock55

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I'm way more mad about Smith than Gregory. We grabbed Gregory with a late 2nd rounder. Smith was the 34th pick of the draft, we should've had a 1st rounder there. But jumped at a guy New England was rumored to take 20-something picks later.
I think we lost out on the 2 DEs we were targeting and panicked. I would have far prefered A'Shawn Robinson at that point. And I know he hasn't lit the world on fire with the Lions, but give him time. He is just a rock solid talent who will be in the NFL a long time in my opinion.

Of course right now Myles Jack would be pretty nice as well.
 

Cowboysrock55

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Sometimes it is just best to shut up and take your medicine. Dragging stuff out like that often times make matters worse. Just draws more attention.
Attention for what? The NFL couldn't do anything more to him? Do you think it would have damaged his reputation among fans? Hell I could even see dropping it after week 4 of the season, but this just seems like really odd timing when there is nothing in it for Gregory. Not unless he had maybe more then the 2 infractions we know about and the league sort of agreed to brush them under the rug.

I guess I just don't understand why it's best for Gregory to shut up and take his medicine when basically every other player facing a suspension on every other team is appealing it and getting better results.
 

Carp

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Attention for what? The NFL couldn't do anything more to him? Do you think it would have damaged his reputation among fans? Hell I could even see dropping it after week 4 of the season, but this just seems like really odd timing when there is nothing in it for Gregory. Not unless he had maybe more then the 2 infractions we know about and the league sort of agreed to brush them under the rug.

I guess I just don't understand why it's best for Gregory to shut up and take his medicine when basically every other player facing a suspension on every other team is appealing it and getting better results.
Considering the fact that he has failed multiple tests it would be best to just take the punishment.

How do we know his drug failures are like every other players? He has a 10 game suspension on top of a 4 game suspension. I have not seen a player get 2 separate suspensions on top of each other like this.

I think he is actually being smart about this...withdrawing his suspension, entering treatment, and keeping out of the spotlight.

No idea what his basis would be for appeal...second hand smoke? He kind of lost traction with that when he entered drug rehabilitation. Also, the pot penalties are much more lenient than all other drugs. You don't get suspended until the 3rd positive test and the fines are much lower. Per reports he has at least 5 testing failures, not to mention his time at Nebraska.
 

Cowboysrock55

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No idea what his basis would be for appeal...second hand smoke? He kind of lost traction with that when he entered drug rehabilitation. Also, the pot penalties are much more lenient than all other drugs. You don't get suspended until the 3rd positive test and the fines are much lower. Per reports he has at least 5 testing failures, not to mention his time at Nebraska.
Listening to Jerry it basically sounds like Gregory didn't get a choice in the matter. That the NFLPA determined they were going to drop the appeal and that was sort of the end of it. Seems a bit odd that the player wouldn't get more of a say in the matter but oh well.
 
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L.T. Fan

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Seriously though, sitting home for 14 weeks and not using is a pretty serious test. It actually seems pretty unintuitive to say "How dare you use this illegal drug, now go home and have nothing to do, and feel bad about yourself, that'll stop your drug use."

It seems like if they weren't going to stop testing for harmless recreational drugs, they could at least come up with a plan to curb use, not just punish users. It's such a 20th century approach to the problem.
The league isn't ruling from a position of whether pot is harmless or not. It really is a pointless position to take. The rules are that it is illegal and that is that. If and when such time as it is declared legal the NFL will take a different position but they do not have standing to be discretionary about whether it is or is not harmful. They only have standing to be discretionary as to what punishment the will administer.
 

townsend

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The league isn't ruling from a position of whether pot is harmless or not. It really is a pointless position to take. The rules are that it is illegal and that is that. If and when such time as it is declared legal the NFL will take a different position but they do not have standing to be discretionary about whether it is or is not harmful. They only have standing to be discretionary as to what punishment the will administer.
But it's arbitrary. There's plenty of illegal things that NFL players do, but they actually have to be involved in an incident to be punished for them. We don't have the NFL installing breathalyzers in every players car to make sure they're sober when they drive. We don't have them installing cameras in players houses to make sure their domestic lives are tranquil. The only reason this is even a thing is because we've somehow normalized analyzing people's urine to verify that they're acting lawfully.
 

L.T. Fan

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But it's arbitrary. There's plenty of illegal things that NFL players do, but they actually have to be involved in an incident to be punished for them. We don't have the NFL installing breathalyzers in every players car to make sure they're sober when they drive. We don't have them installing cameras in players houses to make sure their domestic lives are tranquil. The only reason this is even a thing is because we've somehow normalized analyzing people's urine to verify that they're acting lawfully.
Of course it's arbitrary. The NFL has the authority to prescribe punishment for infractions. What they do not have is authority to disregard the law. It is illegal to use pot in the majority of states. The NFL has rules andpunishments for infractions of the rules. To change the punishments would take the owners and commissioner to rewrite them. At present arbitrary punishment is allowed by the commissioner. That is what needs to be approached.
 

Cotton

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Of course it's arbitrary. The NFL has the authority to prescribe punishment for infractions. What they do not have is authority to disregard the law. It is illegal to use pot in the majority of states. The NFL has rules andpunishments for infractions of the rules. To change the punishments would take the owners and commissioner to rewrite them. At present arbitrary punishment is allowed by the commissioner. That is what needs to be approached.
They don't have to test for pot, though. That's their decision not a mandate by law.
 

L.T. Fan

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They don't have to test for pot, though. That's their decision not a mandate by law.
That is exactly right because they have the authority to mandate these tests. All the more reason for players to exercise decrection.
 

Cotton

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That is exactly right because they have the authority to mandate these tests. All the more reason for players to exercise decrection.
My point was that you seemed to be insinuating that since it was illegal in most states that they had to test for it. Or, at least, should be more inclined to test for it.
 

L.T. Fan

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My point was that you seemed to be insinuating that since it was illegal in most states that they had to test for it. Or, at least, should be more inclined to test for it.
I have no position whether they should or shouldn't only that the do so the players are stupid if they think they won't get caught up to. The league has chosen to enforce these set of rules and that's the playpen. They need to know there are risks to following your own drummer if it differs with the NFL.
 

1bigfan13

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I agree. I feel like a lot of the fandom, is looking for a pound of flesh. As well as wanting to right past wrongs with the Cowboys' poor track record with these kinds of issues.

But it's a knee jerk. There's no benefit to getting rid of Gregory. Of course, as LT alluded to, how he spends his year off will be pretty telling. If he shows up at the end of this season out of shape, we'll have a pretty good idea on his level of commitment.

Uh, no.

A lot of us want to get rid of him because he sucks. He can't play. Simple as that.

He's not worth the headache.
 

1bigfan13

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The benefit to cutting Gregory now is this retarded front office won't go into next off-season assuming they're set at DE.

You can't deny it because we've all seen it before. Those ass clowns will sit on their ass expecting Gregory to be ready and available for the 2017 season. And of course he'll probably find a way to get himself suspended again and we'll be back to square one.

Cut your losses now and address the DE position like a normal, competent franchise.
 

L.T. Fan

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The benefit to cutting Gregory now is this retarded front office won't go into next off-season assuming they're set at DE.

You can't deny it because we've all seen it before. Those ass clowns will sit on their ass expecting Gregory to be ready and available for the 2017 season. And of course he'll probably find a way to get himself suspended again and we'll be back to square one.

Cut your losses now and address the DE position like a normal, competent franchise.
That's my position as well. He has already demonstrated he either will not or cannot keep his head on straight.
 
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