After months of waiting for word from the NFL , Randy Gregory has finally been reinstated and will be able to play for the Dallas Cowboys this season. NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero was among the first to report the news on Friday via Twitter, reposting an official statement from the team. You can view his post here .
The statement made it clear that Gregory might be returning to play this season, but it won’t happen right away. The rush end has been “conditionally reinstated” and will have to check a few boxes before he’s all the way back.
There is an acclimation period he will have to wait through starting this weekend before he’s even allowed to practice with his teammates.
The league said he can officially join the roster on Monday, September 7. At first, he’ll only be able to participate in conditioning drills, individuals workouts and meetings. On the week of October 5, he’ll be able to join full practices.
The timeline shakes out so that Gregory won’t be able to get on the field until after Week 6 of the regular season. That means he could appear in his first game since December 30, 2018, against the Washington Football Team on October 25.
Pelissero added there is a bit of good news when it comes to Gregory’s conditional reinstatement. Because he’s technically no longer suspended, he will get paid while he waits to get back into a game.
While the league laid out that there will be an acclimation process, it did not immediately say what kind of rules he’ll need to follow outside the ones specifically laid out by the team.
The news came just a week before the Cowboys are due to kick off the year against the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday night. He is the second defender Dallas got back this summer who had been serving a suspension.
Earlier in the year, the organization saw linebacker Aldon Smith’s suspension lifted and he’s expected to see regular-season action this year for the first time since 2015.
While Smith has been sitting out longer, Gregory has arguably been waiting for the official word for quite a bit longer than his new teammate.
The former Nebraska football star filed for reinstatement in March. It’s not known why exactly it took the league nearly six months to make the final decision to allow him to play again.
Earlier this summer, Gregory became quite frustrated with the process. As The Inquisitr previously reported, he took to social media and called the reinstatement process “unfair.”
On Friday, he posted on Twitter again, this time voicing his excitement and thanking the Cowboys for supporting him.
— Randy Gregory (@RandyGregory_4) September 4, 2020