Roger Goodell once again stumbles on ruling, this time Josh Gordon, Patriots pay price

Though the NFL commissioner has rightfully reinstated Patriots receiver Josh Gordon, the conditions show that Goodell hasn't fully learned from his lessons in the past.

When NFL commissioner Roger Goodell reinstated New England Patriots receiver Josh  Gordon on Friday, all of New England rejoiced. The Patriots got an incredible boost to a receiving group that still had a lot of question marks heading into their Week 2 preseason game against the Tennessee Titans. 

Though it is stated that Gordon can return to New England's facilities as early as Sunday, the conditions regarding the former Browns receiver's return to football highlight how Goodell is still not competent of coming out of a decision scot-free. 

In Goodell's statement regarding Gordon's reinstatement he said, "Because (Gordon) will not have sufficient conditioning and practice time, however, he may attend but may not play in the Patriots' Thursday August 22 game."

Goodell's statement bares asking the question, as Matt Chatham brings up - how - or why - does Goodell get to determine where Gordon stands in terms of his conditioning and practice? 

For Gordon, playing in a full game wouldn't have happened in Week 3 of the preseason vs. the Panthers. The starters will likely play two or three quarters of football, but no starter is playing the entire game. So conditioning wouldn't have been as big of an issue as it would be in a regular season game. 

With that being said, the conditioning of a player is an aspect of player evaluation that should be determined by the team and not the commissioner. But once again, New England is subject to the poor decision making of the league's commissioner. 

Though it seems like a rather small condition - as it is just a preseason game and Gordon may in fact not be in football shape - it just shows that Goodell struggles to learn and grow from prior mistakes, which would entail being consistent and fair with his rulings.