Kansas City Chiefs running back Melvin Gordon gave a recent interview talking about his journey from being depressed in Denver to joining the Chiefs.
For a while, Melvin Gordon says he “couldn’t see the light.”
As a veteran running back in the National Football League, he was facing a frustrating situation with the Denver Broncos and confronting the potential end of his own playing career. It’s a difficult place for any professional athlete to be—as countless players have detailed that transition over the years—and Gordon wasn’t sure where the path ahead might take him.
These days, Gordon can look down at his championship ring, and one of the more memorable post-game images from the Kansas City Chiefs’ win over the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII is Gordon himself celebrating with a cigar. It was a meaningful moment for a player who has been stuck looking up at the Chiefs in the standings after playing in the AFC West for the Broncos and L.A. Chargers for the last eight seasons.
Gordon recently appeared on the Rutledge and Hamilton Show on ESPN radio in Madison, Wisconsin, back where he Gordon was a star at the University of Wisconsin, to talk about his professional career and joining the Chiefs. Initially, Gordon said it was tough to stomach the news that he wouldn’t be playing, but the Chiefs didn’t want to mess with a good thing.
“They were trying to find a way to work me into the rotation, but those guys—Jet [McKinnon] and [Pacheco]—were playing pretty well and Andy was like, ‘Man I know you can play well but I don’t want to mess up the flow of the team just because I know you can play well.’ So that’s what kind of held me back a little bit.”
Later in the interview, Gordon detailed what it meant to finally win a ring—even though he was well aware he didn’t play in the game.
“It was crazy because I was talking with Brandon Marshall and he made a joke about, ‘You fumbled yourself into a ring or something like that.’ We laughed about it in an interview. Then he came after the game and I said, ‘Yeah, now I’ve actually got a ring.’
“I started talking trash back but then I just broke down in front of him. It was crazy. I just started thinking about my time in Denver. It was really depressing for me, for real, to the point where I was like, ‘Man, I don’t know about this no more.’ It was that depressing for me. I couldn’t see the light, y’know?
“I went over there to K.C. and it was tough. It was humbling, being on the practice squad, which is something I’ve never done before. It was like you know you shouldn’t be there. But I had a reason to be there and I had to understand that. I knew I should have been playing, but Andy Reid was like, ‘The team is first. We can’t put you in right now.’ It was tough.
“But then it just all hit me after the game. I was like, ‘I’m a real… I’m a champion. I don’t care if I didn’t play. I have a ring. No one can ever take that from me.’ Man it just all hit me at once. I was just thinking about the whole story, the year. I was very depressed to say the least. [Laughs] So for me to end up on top, it was a big weight off of my shoulders.”
It’s unknown if Gordon will be back with the Chiefs or not next season but if the Chiefs liked him as security, it’s possible he could find a way onto the offseason roster as depth and competition at a position where Clyde Edwards-Helaire’s future feels uncertain and Ronald Jones and Jerick McKinnon are both free agents.
Gordon has earned nearly 9,000 yards from scrimmage in his NFL career with the Chargers and Broncos with 69 total touchdowns on the ground and through the air. The two-time Pro Bowler had 918 rushing yards and 8 touchdowns just a year ago, so there’s reason to believe he still has more in the tank with some team.