Star Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb is nearing a return to the field. Chubb has been out since Week 2 of last season, when he suffered a devastating knee injury during a Monday night game against the division rival Pittsburgh Steelers.
On the eve of his return, Chubb detailed his feelings about both the injury itself and the support he has received from the Browns organization and the city of Cleveland over the last year-plus, in a first-person article at The Players' Tribune.
"Damn, I really did that s*** again."
That was my first thought after I went down against Pittsburgh last season. When you get hurt like I got hurt, the weird thing is that you don't even really feel anything. But you hear everything. You hear that weird silence in the crowd. You can sense your teammates kind of gathering around you.
You're hearing a lot of "It's gonna be alright, bro."
That's never a good sign. Once guys start getting down on one knee, you know it's pretty bad. If it's my teammates praying over me, maybe it's just a bone bruise. Maybe I'll be back by the playoffs.
But now I got Steelers praying over me?
That's when you know it's serious. The dark thoughts start creeping in.
Widely considered arguably the league's best pure runner during his time in the NFL, Chubb is a four-time Pro Bowler who has averaged 5-plus yards per carry in every season of his career. He signed a three-year, $36.6 million contract but agreed this offseason to renegotiate his salary for the 2024 season, dropping his cap number by $9.9 million. Chubb said in his Players' Tribune post that the Browns never considered not bringing him back -- but for an interesting reason.
"When my agent called me to tell me the news, he said, 'I've never actually had a front office tell me anything like this. But they said that part of the reason they never entertained cutting you is because of how much you mean to the city,'" Chubb said. "That really meant the world to me. Look, I know the deal. I had no guaranteed money left. The Browns had all the leverage. They could've left me high and dry, like so many guys in this league. But they had my back. You all had my back."
That reasoning inspired Chubb to take the following stance on his comeback: "There's only one thing left to do now. I gotta pay ya back."