DALLAS — The NFL conditionally reinstated Dallas Cowboys defensive end Randy Gregory Tuesday. In a couple words, he's back, but not really. Right now, Gregory is permitted to report to Cowboys training camp in Oxnard, Calif. next week and in meetings and conditioning work.
According to the league release, "Once arrangements have been confirmed regarding Gregory’s clinical resources in Dallas, and subject to continued compliance with the terms of his reinstatement and all aspects of the NFL-NFLPA Policy and Program on Substances of Abuse, he will be permitted to participate in all activities, including practices and games."
That is the final hurdle he must clear in order to return as a Cowboy. Don't buy your Randy Gregory No. 94 navy blue jersey just yet.
The 2015 second-round pick from Nebraska is earnest in his return to the playing field. There are plenty of reasons to bet on the man.
"He's got a real plus relationship with his teammates," owner, president, and general manager Jerry Jones said on 105.3 The Fan on Dec. 20, 2016. "He works hard. He's conscientious. He's very well liked out there. He's extremely smart. He had the highest SAT test of anybody that we really drafted since I've been here. So, he's got the whole package. We've just got as we look to the future and I have not in any way dismissed him. I'm certainly disappointed that we haven't had more use of him. But I haven't dismissed him from our future at all."
The Cowboys front office certainly didn't dismiss Gregory. This was six days before Gregory would play his first game of the 2016 season after a 14-game suspension for violation of the league's substance abuse policy, which upon another violation X-ed him for the entire 2017 season. Gregory logged his first career sack in two games before the league shut him down for a full one-year ban ahead of the Cowboys' divisional playoff match with the Green Bay Packers.
Gregory ended up in the soup right before the 2015 NFL combine when he failed a drug test. It drew the league office's attention towards him like a T. Rex seeing prey moving about. In Feb. 2016, Gregory failed another drug test, which earned him a four-game suspension. They were on his scent.
"At the end of the day when someone has this type of illness and you have to get the right infrastructure in place and the right support system to give them the chance to succeed," chief operating officer Stephen Jones said on May 20, 2016. "And that's what we're doing with Randy. And he's a good person and when you visit with him I think he's somebody that is the first to tell you twice that he's got challenges to overcome. I think the best way to say that is he's a good person. He's wanting to do things to right way. And we'll continue to support him until obviously he does something that we have to hang it up."
In September, Gregory failed another drug test and had another 10 games added on. The aforementioned one-year ban occurred in Jan. 2017. When would the Cowboys hang it up with Gregory?
Something happened with the Joneses during the Gregory suspension. They started to see it from Gregory's point of view, and that he wasn't a "bad person" simply because he kept violating the league's substance abuse policy.
Said Jerry on Oct. 24, 2017 with 105.3 The Fan: "He's, I think, the classic case of potentially what we ought to consider when we're looking at some of our substance issues. And, so, I'm just going to hold it at that. I don't want to speculate on whether he'll be on the field for us at that time or not."
The Cowboys kept holding out for Gregory, and for the time being, they've got him. Pending all of the other clinical requirements, we will see if he completes the comeback to the Cowboys.
Probably the best words about the Gregory situation came from five-time Super Bowl champion Charles Haley, who was a pivotal player for the Cowboys' three Super Bowl wins in the 1990s. At a Taste of the NFL event at AT&T Stadium on May 4, shortly after the Cowboys drafted Gregory, Haley had sagacious words in a way only the Hall-of-Fame pass rusher could put it.
"Everybody makes mistakes in life," Haley said. "And I don't have time to talk to the guy about a mistake. I want to talk to him about what he's enter into, because this is going to be a zoo, a frenzy trying to attack his character, attack who he is. One moment don't define a man."
Gregory has been determined since he entered this zoo to not let any of those moments define him. In the moments to come, we will all bear witness to how this final conflict resolves.
Do you think that the Cowboys will ever see production from Randy Gregory? Make your predictions with Mark on Twitter @therealmarklane.
