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- Mar 18, 2019
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Cowboys defensive end Randy Gregory continues anxiously to await word from the NFL on his reinstatement application.
Gregory said on social media Wednesday he is doing everything asked to return to the field. The NFL wants a testing record and hasn’t tested him for six months because of COVID-19, a source tells PFT.
“I really miss playing football and being a player in the NFL,” Gregory said in a statement. “I’m doing everything that is asked of me, and I’m in great shape physically, mentally, and emotionally, but I’m being held back from furthering my career because of COVID and testing. I’ve been ready to play and test for months but still have gotten little to no help to resolve my reinstatement. I’m asking more questions than I’m getting answered. It’s amazing that the powers that be can keep passing the buck and also use this pandemic as a way to prevent me from joining my team. Telling me to just sit and wait in limbo over things I can’t control, all the while doing everything right off the field is unfair and flat out wrong.”
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell approved pass rusher Aldon Smith‘s reinstatement application in May after Smith joined the Cowboys. Free agent receivers Josh Gordon and Martavis Bryant remain indefinitely suspended, like Gregory.
Although the new Collective Bargaining Agreement ends the policy of suspending players for positive marijuana tests, it does not provide amnesty for players like Gregory who were serving suspensions at the time the new CBA was adopted. So he still needs approval from the commissioner.
Gregory, 27, is serving his fourth suspension for violation of the NFL’s substances of abuse policy. His last reinstatement came July 17, 2018, and Gregory made six sacks in 14 games in 2018.
He missed the entire 2019 season.
The Cowboys made Gregory a second-round choice in 2015, but he has played only 28 games, with one start, making 45 tackles and seven sacks.