Randy Gregory: I’m Disappointed, Plain & Simple

Well look at what we got here.

Randy Gregory has been suspended for the first four games of the 2016 season for violating the league’s substance abuse policy.

Now, you can argue about whether marijuana should be legal or not. You can argue about whether the league has a ridiculous substance abuse policy. Guess what, I am not here to argue about either and I think this instance is about more than abusing a substance.

For Randy Gregory to do this really stings. I really believed that this was behind him. I thought that this was a good kid who made a dumb mistake and was ready to use it as motivation to become great.

Listen to his call with Jerry Jones after he was drafted. Listen to everything Randy Gregory said after being selected by the Dallas Cowboys in the second round of the 2015 NFL Draft.

This looked like a kid who realized his mistake and was so thankful of the Cowboys organization for taking the chance on him. He seemed like he was going to be made into a monster. The Cowboys slapped the historic number 94 on his back as if to say “Randy…we believe in you and we have your back.”

The Cowboys held up their end. They took the chance on a troubled kid. They backed it up by putting that number on his back. They said all the right things about him publicly and stuck their neck out for him.

This is how Randy Gregory repays this organization?

This is simply inexcusable. This basically says that Randy Gregory cares more about whatever substance he absused than he does about his professional career, his ability to make a lot of money, the Dallas Cowboys organization and the game of football.

It was made quite simple for him. There were two options, 1. Play football, make a lot of money and have a lot of success for a team that stuck their neck out for you, or 2. Continue to use banned substances.

Randy Gregory obviously chose the second option.

Now what?

The Cowboys still have Randy Gregory obviously, and he still has tremendous talent. Gregory can still participate in all offseason work as well as the preseason, so he can continue to work on his game.

Gregory will miss a quarter of the 2016 Cowboys season, which obviously really hurts. The defensive end position is now a position of major need.

Randy Gregory using this substance not only hurt himself, but it hurt 52 other men. His teammates should be disgusted. He hurt every member of the Cowboys front office. He hurt every single coach that believed in him.

This was purely selfish and the repercussions are tremendous for the Dallas Cowboys.

Yes, it is four games. Can the Cowboys just simply believe in him now? How could you? You have to prepare as if this will happen again. You have to look into the future of the defensive end position for the Dallas Cowboys down the line.

Randy Gregory now becomes an added bonus rather than a guy you are counting on to be a major part of your team’s future.

The trickle-down effect will be something to watch. The Cowboys should now enter free agency with a major need at defensive end. Olivier Vernon becomes even more intriguing to me.

You hope they enter the draft with less of a need than the one they have today. You would hate to see them feel like they have to take Joey Bosa at fourth overall if they have a different player ranked higher.

This is something that is just really disappointing. I believed in the Randy Gregory story. I became emotionally attached to the story of a guy making a childish mistake and being determined to right his wrong. I became attached to seeing a team reach out to a player like the Cowboys did with Gregory and the player repaying them by not only staying clean but becoming a dominant player.

While the career of Randy Gregory is far from over, you hope this was the second wake up call that he needed. If not, the Cowboys must look to improve this position long-term.

Regardless…good thing for Demarcus Lawrence.