Optimism on Cowboys Comeback for Reinstatement-Minded and 'Happy' Randy Gregory

There Is New Optimism on a Dallas Cowboys Comeback for Suspended Defensive End Randy Gregory

FRISCO - On July 11, 2019, we broke the detailed story of Randy Gregory's NFL petition-for-reinstatement plan. The paperwork was to be submitted four days later, on July 15. Ten days later, we wrote a second story quoting two members of the suspended Dallas Cowboys player's legal team, both of whom spoke with optimism about the process.

Then months passed. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was required to issue a judgment within 60 days of a player's submission - and that judgment never came.

So ... what happened? And what's happening now? We now know that Gregory never did file then ... but multiple reports say he has now officially filed for reinstatement, with ESPN noting that that "60-day clock'' is again ticking.

In my many stories on and my many conversations with Gregory, the gifted former second-round pick who struggles with issues that include marijuana use, I've stressed that this really needs to be about Gregory the person rather than Gregory the football player.

We're left to conclude that Gregory stumbled back then ...  but we were told earlier this month that hearing he's ready to take another shot at the NFL now.

"I'm working very hard to get to a place where I can be in control,'' Gregory told me then. "It will be a happier place.''

Can that place be back with the Dallas Cowboys, the employer with whom he retains an official tie? That's the idea. The Cowboys still have his rights, of course, and he's played very little football over the course of his checkered career. But Cowboys ownership believes in him. Maybe the coming decriminalization of marijuana in the new CBA helps him, too. 

But most of all, the story here will be that Randy Gregory has found a "happier place'' ... where playing in the NFL is part of the happiness.