Scandrick Returns To Cowboys

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IRVING, Texas — A humbled, focused and even more motivated cornerback Orlando Scandrick returned to the Dallas Cowboys on Wednesday after the NFL officially rescinded his four-game suspension.

Scandrick missed the first two games of the season, but he will be ready for Sunday’s game against the St. Louis Rams.

He was suspended after testing positive for an amphetamine following an April vacation in Mexico, where he admitted to having a drink with “Molly” in it.

“It’s good to be out here, it’s good to get my feet underneath me,” Scandrick said. “I feel like I picked up right where I left off. I feel good, I’m excited, I’m relieved, I’m thankful. I can’t even put into words how I feel. I’m ready. I’m focused. I’m more focused than ever. I’ve changed the way I do things. I’m just excited to be back and be a part of this team.”

Scandrick was suspended for having amphetamines, an ingredient in “Mollys,” in his

system in the offseason. The punishment for that was switched from the “performance-enhancers” category to the substance-abuse program as part of the new drug policy finalized Wednesday. Players who test positive for such substances in the offseason will be referred to the substance-abuse program after a first offense.

“This will never happen to me again,” Scandrick said. “I learned that adversity shows a man’s true character. That was tough, sitting back and not being able to play. I was pretty much handcuffed. It was like my career was dangling in front of me. It wasn’t over, but I couldn’t have it. I mean, I couldn’t go out and get another job. Adversity builds character. I feel like I’m coming back, I’m mentally stronger, and I’m just ready to play and help this team win.”

Scandrick’s return once again raised questions about Morris Claiborne, who likely will be relegated to back up duty again.

Such a proposition was certainly unheard of on draft night 2012 when the Cowboys traded their top two picks to the St. Louis Rams to move to the sixth overall spot to take Claiborne, who was billed by Dallas as the best cornerback prospect in the draft since Hall of Famer Deion Sanders.

Now there are questions about whether Claiborne is the fourth-best cornerback on the team behind Scandrick, Brandon Carr and former undrafted free agent Sterling Moore.

“You’ve got to be careful about expectations,” coach Jason Garrett said. “We want to bring good football players in, and we obviously thought Mo was someone who was one of the better players in that draft at a position that we had a real need to try to address.

“Mo’s done a lot of good things for us so far. He’s had a battle with some injuries the first couple of years of his career, but we really believe that he’s a developing player and he’s getting better and better and better, the kind of guy at a really critical position in your team we think can play here for a long, long time.

“To reflect back and say, ‘We had these expectations. This is what he’s done,’ I’m not sure that’s a really healthy thing to do. The biggest thing is to come to work every day and get better. He’s certainly tried to do that.

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