The Three Stooges? Manziel, Hardy and Josh Gordon are all changed men.....riiiiigt

[AFJF]

Greg Hardy, Johnny Football and Josh Gordon are all changed men...who'da thunk it?

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2017/02/28/greg-hardy-keeps-insisting-hes-a-changed-man/

Speaking of guys who keep saying all the right things and not necessarily following up on their words with actions, Greg Hardy’s talking again.

And whether it went better than the last time he tried image-rehabilitation may depend mostly on your personal philosophy on forgiveness and redemption.

Via MMAFighting.com, Hardy did an interview this week with The MMA Hour in which he played all the hits, expressing something approaching but not quite reaching remorse for his domestic violence arrest, vowing sobriety after a recent cocaine possession arrest and keeping hope alive for a football career that depends on a spring minor league tour in West Virginia.

Hardy’s currently training as an MMA fighter, where his opponents will presumably be men, ones who have been practicing the art for more than a few weeks. But he said the instruction has been good for him.

“It’s helped me a lot of ways,” Hardy said. “I have a lot of problems as a human being. It’s not something that you do, just walking around saying ‘I’m perfect’ or ‘I’m good.’ Man, I have a lot of different issues that I’m definitely working through and working on. I would say this helps me channel everything. It helps me just come back down to Earth, be humble, because these are machines that I see everyday. I get choked out, punched in the face, and laid out on the mat daily, and that’s not something that a guy my size and my stature with my history has every come across.

“It’s a humbling experience, man. Actually, it’s making me really appreciative of everything that I’ve had and everything that I have, and the opportunity that I have to kinda come in and show myself as a guy that is not what everybody says on TV, or, ‘he’s not a monster, he’s not a killer, a women beater,’ this, that and the other. It gives me an opportunity to just come in, be a humble guy, and learn, and honestly just be at the feet of all these champions who walk around like they’re just normal guys . . . and have the opportunity to make myself better one more time, one last time in sports and life in general.”

Asked about the pending cocaine charges, Hardy said “I don’t even think I can remember,” the last time he used alcohol or drugs, which may not be the best answer either.

“It feels like I did this to me, and it sucks,” he said. “I was where I needed to be, I had everything that I wanted, and the normal story is, ‘Man, somebody took it away,’ and I don’t have that. I took it away from myself. Now I’m nobody. I’m nowhere. I’m just in the middle of where I put myself.”

He also said he regretted his interview with ESPN’s Adam Schefter (which Schefter kind of regrets too), and insisted he was not guilty of hitting his former girlfriend.

“Like I said, I’m in this position that I’m in, I did it to myself,” Hardy said. “But at the same time, nobody knows the whole story, so I have to take everything with a grain of salt.”

There was a lot more, and he worked very hard to portray a man who was genuinely sorry for his past problems. At least the ones he’d admit to.

But after no one in the NFL was willing to take a chance on a guy who once had 15.0 sacks in a season, he should probably expect that people are only going to believed he’s changed when they see it.

 

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/johnny-manziel-to-dallas-judge-i-need-to-get-my-life-in-order/

It’s been 51 weeks since the Browns pulled the plug on the Johnny Manzielexperiment, and the parting of ways came less than two years after the team drafted him in the first round. At the time, Manziel suggested he wouldn’t be out of work long and his plans were to be on an NFL roster for the 2016 season. It didn’t happen, and instead, the former Heisman Trophy winner spent much of the summer partaking in non-football-related activities.

Things were so bad that, in February 2016, Manziel’s father admitted that jail might be the best place for his son.

It never came to that and now Manziel, 24, once again appears to be trying to get his life in order. On Tuesday, he told  a Dallas County judge as much -- in the hopes of having a misdemeanor assault charge against him be dismissed. Manziel was charged last year after his ex-girlfriend accused him of kidnapping, beating and threatening to kill her.

In December, Manziel reached an agreement with prosecutors to dismiss his domestic-violence assault case involving his former girlfriend -- if he met certain conditions, including proof that he’d completed a substance-abuse program.

According to the Dallas Morning News, Judge Roberto Cañas told Manziel on Tuesday that he’s concerned the former NFL quarterback isn’t taking his conditional agreement seriously because he hasn’t updated the court about his progress.

“Not everybody who comes through here gets this kind of opportunity because right now, you’re in charge of what happens to your case,” Judge Cañas told Manziel. “If you decide not to follow the terms of the conditional dismissal, then basically what you’re saying to me is that you either want me to make a decision about your life, or you want six people whom you’ve never met to make a decision about your life,” the judge said.

Cañas then asked Manziel to assess the situation from his perspective.

“Everything has been going extremely smoothly and my life is trending upward,” Manziel began, “so I don’t even want to let this get anywhere near the rabbit hole that you were describing. This situation is in my hands ... I need to get my life in order. These are the things I need to do.”

If the case had gone to trial, Manziel would have faced a maximum punishment of one year in jail and a $4,000 fine for the Class A misdemeanor.

 

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2017/03/01/josh-gordon-set-to-apply-for-reinstatement-again/

 

Perhaps you’ve read this once or twice or seven times before, but suspended wide receiver Josh Gordon plans to apply for reinstatement, ESPN reported Wednesday.

Gordon was conditionally reinstated in time to participate in training camp with the Browns last season, and part of that deal was a suspension for the first four games of 2016. Before he could be activated, though, he entered a rehab facility and remained under indefinite suspension.

Gordon’s business manager, Michael Johnson, told ESPN that “Josh is living with me and is in the best place mentally that he has been in dating back years before entering the NFL. He has taken the proper steps to treat his issues and has followed a very strict protocol that the league and our team here has laid out for him.

“He’s also in the best shape of his life and feels even better than he did when he had his breakout year in 2013. This will be a special year for Josh and we are all very proud of the way he has taken the necessary steps to turn his life around.”

Gordon has been posting workout pictures and videos to his social media accounts. Those making the decision at the NFL, though, won’t be interested in that. Gordon is a multiple-time offender and would have to prove to the NFL that he can stay clean.

He’s served some sort of suspension in each of the last four seasons. A drug policy change made him eligible to play the final six games of 2014, and he was suspended for all of 2015. He led the NFL with 1,646 receiving yards in 2013 despite missing the first two games due to a suspension that was cut down by appeal from four games. The Browns still hold the rights to Gordon, who turns 26 in April, but nothing thus far has changed regarding his indefinite suspension.

An NFL spokesman told Cleveland.com Wednesday that the league had no comment on Gordon’s latest reinstatement bid.

[#27TheDominator]

No Justin Blackmon?  He's the best one and still only 27.

[joewilly12]

Sign all these beasts!!!!!

[Larz]

^   like a moth to a flame

[joewilly12]

24 minutes ago, Larz said:

^   like a moth to a flame

We have many glaring needs on this team in case you didn't notice. 

Risk vs Reward its not like what we've been doing is working. 

 

[jbt]

could it get any worse

[section314]

They're all changed men because they are broke. Simple as that. Booze, drugs, chicks and lawsuits go through money pretty quickly.

[cant wait]

What Gordon did is not on the same level as hardy/manziel 

[David Harris]

I can't help but start drooling whenever I think of the potential of Josh Gordon

[kdels62]

1 hour ago, David Harris said:

I can't help but start drooling whenever I think of the potential of Josh Gordon

Plus he gets points for having the drug issues without the beating women issues. Easily the best of the 3 options available.

[Joe W. Namath]

If these 3 guys can stay off the sauce, their lives would get 90% better quick.

 

[TuscanyTile2]

Sign these changed beasts!

[Fantasy Island]

Sheldon will soon be on that list.

[faba]

These guys have already had second chances and blew it- ordinary people do not get that opportunity usually