Former NFL wide receiver Josh Gordon returns to the sport in the startup Fan Controlled Football league as a member of the Zappers, team owner Bob Menery told ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Saturday.
Gordon will join former NFL quarterback Johnny Manziel in that team’s roster.
The competition, which started playing this month, features 7v7 games in which fans set rosters, create call plays and interact in a mix of traditional and esports environments.
Gordon’s on-again, off-again NFL career ran into another roadblock last month as a member of the Seattle Seahawks, when he was indefinitely banned after the league rescinded his conditional recovery.
An NFL spokesperson told ESPN at the time that the decision came from Gordon, 29, who violated the terms of his conditional reinstatement under the league’s drug abuse policy. No other details were provided from the competition.
The league suspended Gordon indefinitely in December 2019 for violating its policies on abuse and performance-enhancing drugs. That was Gordon’s sixth suspension since the 2013 season and his fifth for some form of substance abuse, according to research from ESPN Stats & Information.
Gordon was paroled by the NFL in December and would practice with the Seahawks in the last two weeks of the regular season. Coach Pete Carroll said at the time that he had the chance to play Week 16 against the Los Angeles Rams. But that same week, the NFL placed him on the commissioner’s exempt list.
Gordon signed a one-year contract with the Seahawks before starting last season. In 63 NFL games, he has 247 receptions, 4,252 yards, and 20 touchdowns. He was called up by the Cleveland Browns in the second round of the 2012 Supplemental Draft, after having played at Utah and Baylor.
FCF teams play a six-week schedule, with games streamed live on Twitch from a league-rented facility in Atlanta. The matches last about an hour and the field is 50 by 35 meters with end zones of 10 meters.
Players come from FBS and FCS college level backgrounds along with the CFL, XFL, and the Indoor Football League including Manziel.
Before FCF, Manziel, 28, last played football in April 2019 for the Alliance of American Football and has also played in The Spring League and the CFL since the Browns released him in 2015. Manziel and Gordon were teammates in Cleveland.