In 2016, Rolando McClain was suspended indefinitely by the NFL. Now the linebacker wants to return and takes a stand on his former misconduct

The NFL has removed linebacker Rolando McClain from the list of suspended players. What’s special: The athlete has been suspended repeatedly throughout his career for violations of the league’s substance abuse policy.

The NFL suspended McClain indefinitely at the beginning of December 2016. He was then reinstated with conditions before the 2019 season. It is unclear whether he was then placed back on the suspension list.

The now 34-year-old has not played in the NFL since the 2015 season, which he spent with the Dallas Cowboys. However, he is now looking for a chance to resume his career.

As he explained in an interview with Sports Illustrated: “I never planned on not returning to football. I’m still me in every way. I laugh at the skeptics. I’m ready for the NFL now. It’s like riding a bike. Football is life and I love the game.”

The linebacker also said he is only four kilos below his former playing weight and is in great shape.

McClain also commented on his previous transgressions against NFL guidelines. He said a former teammate “secretly” gave him synthetic marijuana and got him hooked.

“I was freaking out. For the longest time I had to smoke real weed to be able to think reasonably normally. The hardest thing for me was getting over the mental fog that the synthetics put me in,” he looks back.

Can McClain make it back to the NFL?

The linebacker was selected eighth overall in the 2010 draft by the then Oakland Raiders. Three seasons with his first team were followed by two more with the Cowboys before he was indefinitely suspended.

Nevertheless, McClain has nothing but praise for Commissioner Roger Goodell. He was “a great supporter from the beginning”: “He was always fair.”

Whether an NFL team will take pity on him, however, remains to be seen