The talented but troubled Rolando McClain this week learned that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is lifting the league’s suspension of the former Dallas Cowboys and NFL star after a seven-year hiatus.
“I’m still ‘me’ in every way; I laugh (at the skepticism),” McClain told CowboysSI.com in an exclusive interview on his desire to return to the league at age 34. “I’m ready for the NFL now. Like riding a bike! Football is life. I love the game.
An NFL source suggests to CowboysSI.com that Dallas – acutely aware of McClain’s challenges and now his newfound status – are not interested in a reunion with the linebacker who was a Dallas roster member in 2016 when he was again suspended by the NFL for violating the league’s Program and Policy for Substances of Abuse.
McClain played for the Cowboys in 2014 and 2015, but they relinquished his rights in 2019.
McClain, who has been on an intense five-year plan that has included not only physical work but also work with NFL-sanctioned doctors and psychiatrists, told CowboysSI.com that he remembers fondly his time with the Cowboys.
McClain was the eighth player selected in the 2010 NFL Draft, going to the Oakland Raiders. He got off to a stellar start there before behavior issues derailed him. McClain was arrested three times between Dec. 1, 2011, and April 21, 2013, and then announced a retirement before the 2013 season began.
McClain, however, returned from his one-year retirement to join the Cowboys, who won the NFC East title in 2014 and earned their first playoff victory since 2009 with the 6-4, 260-pound McClain as their play-making middle linebacker.
