Rolando McClain intends to return to action if his suspension is removed.
When Rolando McClain is cleared to play again, he wants to play football again, despite the fact that he is 34 years old and hasn’t played in the NFL in almost eight years.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Wednesday
McClain hasn’t played in an NFL game since Jan. 3, 2016. He was indefinitely suspended by the NFL on Dec. 2, 2016, for violating the league’s Program and Policy for Substances of Abuse.
McClain served a four-game suspension to start the 2015 season for running afoul of the NFL’s Program and Policy for Substances of Abuse and was returning from missing the first 10 games of the 2016 campaign on a second suspension when he received the indefinite suspension.
AL.com reported McClain received a conditional reinstatement in August 2019, shortly before he was released by the Dallas Cowboys on Sept. 2, 2019, and he was back on the suspended list by December without returning to the NFL
The end to his suspension makes McClain an NFL free agent.
“Mr. Goodell has been a big supporter of mine from the beginning,’’ McClain told Fisher. “He’s always been fair.’’
McClain was a football and basketball star for Decatur High School before earning the Butkus Award as the nation’s best linebacker and the SEC Defensive Player of the Year Award while playing for the undefeated Alabama team that won the BCS national-championship team for the 2009 season.
McClain was the eighth player selected in the 2010 NFL Draft, going to the Oakland Raiders. McClain made the Pro Football Writers of America’s All-Rookie team, but he played his final game for the Raiders on Nov. 25, 2012.
McClain didn’t appear in another NFL regular-season game for 642 days.
McClain returned from a one-year retirement to help the Cowboys win the NFC East title in 2014 and earn their first playoff victory since 2009 as Dallas’ middle linebacker.
In addition to being a finalist for the George Halas Award, which is given yearly to the NFL player, coach, or staff member who overcomes the greatest difficulties to triumph, McClain placed second in the vote for the NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award in 2014.
McClain participated in 65 regular-season games, two postseason games, and had 63 starts over his five NFL seasons. During the regular season, he racked up 407 tackles, 35 tackles for loss, 9.5 sacks, and four interceptions.
