The Cleveland Browns are hoping to know the league's decision on WR Josh Gordon as soon as possible, but according to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, an appeal hearing has not even been scheduled yet.
Why is that bad news? In a worst-cast scenario, Gordon would be banned for a full year, effective from the date of the NFL's decision. Imagine if the decision comes right mid-way through training camp -- that means that valuable preparation time in 2014 would have been wasted on Gordon, and Gordon would miss nearly the entire offseason program in 2015 as well. The decision could even extend into the regular season, with the ban overlapping a span of two seasons.
This also could throw a dagger in some of the optimism that Browns fans had built up that "no news is good news" when it comes to Gordon's suspension. If an appeal hearing hasn't even been scheduled yet, then we can't draw any conclusions about how long the process is taking. We're at the league's mercy, it seems.