The Cleveland Browns finally parted ways with wide receiver Josh Gordon this week, and the team was reportedly frustrated that Gordon was not in football shape.

Senior NFL Reporter at NBC Sports Boston Albert Breer said on the Quick Slants New England Patriots Podcast Gordon tweaked his hamstring during a promo shoot, and the Browns weren't pleased about that.

“The hamstring issue is more a symptom of him not being reliable,” Breer said. “It wasn't like he was in any sort of disrepair when they were dealing him. It was the way he got hurt, which was outside of team activities and the fact that he showed up late the next day.”

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Breer goes on to say the Browns played Gordon a lot during their Week 1 tie to the Pittsburgh Steelers to send a message to Gordon. The organization wanted to show Gordon that he wasn't in good shape and needed to get his act together, again.

“I think this goes beyond just the substance abuse problem,” Breer said. “The Browns had gotten frustrated with him, and it wasn't just the hamstring and what happened last weekend. It was also the fact that he had trouble getting himself into football shape. And I think a lot of people look at him… and by human standards, he's in great shape — not the same thing as being in football shape. And in that first game, you might notice that they put him out there for I think 69 snaps, right? [Coach] Hue Jackson said before the game, ‘We didn't intend to start him,' but they did intend to play him a lot and then they said they only started him because of personnel groupings.

“My understanding is part of the reason they put him out there for that long was to show him, ‘Hey, look – you may think you're in great shape, but being in football shape is something different.' And so if you watch the game, he wore down a little bit at the end and that's something they had experienced in practice, and so that's something to watch for.”

Josh Gordon, who has career stats of 180 receptions for 3,106 yards and 16 touchdowns, is expected to play this week when the New England Patriots take on the Lions in Detroit. This may be Gordon's last chance in the NFL, so he better get his mind and body right.