Cowboys saw enough in Rico Gathers to overlook marijuana arrest

Rico Gathers’ arrest for misdemeanor marijuana possession Friday night in Frisco wasn’t serious enough to affect the tight end’s status with the Dallas Cowboys.

That was clear when Gathers made the Dallas Cowboys’ 53-man roster on Saturday.

Head coach Jason Garrett, however, said punishment is likely coming from organization, if not the league.

“Obviously, the incident that happened on Friday night was poor judgment on his part. It’s not something we want from any of our players,” Garrett said. “There will be consequences for that when players come back in [Tuesday]. He and I have communicated via text, we haven’t spoken yet. That was poor judgment, but we also didn’t think it was enough to impact the decision we made with our 53-man roster.”

The NFL handles marijuana differently from all other substances. The discipline for marijuana use is less strict and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has indicated further softening the league’s policy.

Garrett said Gathers’ improvement at blocking during training camp factored in the decision. An injury sidelined Gathers a year ago.

“Rico just did a nice job playing for it. He’s grown and developed as a tight end. He’s doing more of the things that a tight end needs to do better,” he said. “Some of the things are coming more naturally to him. He’s getting better at some of the things he hasn’t had that much experience doing. He had a good training camp and a good preseason.”

Gathers, who played basketball at Baylor but hadn’t played football since junior high, caught 10 passes for 83 yards in the preseason.

“One of the things that was most impressive about him was even though he was learning you could tell he was thinking and he made aggressive mistakes,” Garrett said. “He played fast. His inexperience didn’t cause him to slow down. I think that’s a big step for a player. He got better and better and better.”

This story was originally published September 3, 2018 at 3:55 PM.