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Loyalty is far from a guarantee in the NFL.
But Nick Chubb feels it from the Cleveland Browns.
The running back released a piece for The Players’ Tribune on Wednesday and revealed what the only NFL team he has ever known told him and his agent as he was recovering from multiple knee surgeries.
“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 wrote.
“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.”
Chubb suffered a significant knee injury during Week 2 of the 2023 season against the Pittsburgh Steelers. He underwent a surgery to repair the medial capsule, meniscus and MCL and then another one in November to repair the ACL.
That it was the same left knee he underwent reconstructive surgery for because of the torn MCL, PCL and LCL he suffered while at Georgia in 2015 made it all the more notable.
Cleveland ultimately reworked his deal this offseason, and ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler noted the AFC North team reduced his salary cap hit from $15.85 million to $6.275 million while giving him the opportunity to earn up to $12.2 million in incentives in 2024.
But the organization didn’t cut him and made sure he was still on the roster.
Now the running back who was a Pro Bowler in four straight seasons from 2019 through 2022 will look to return to the field and help a Browns team that is 1-5 and in need of a boost.
“That’s enough talking for me,” he wrote. “There’s only one thing left to do now. I gotta pay ya back.
“These rocks ain’t going to move themselves. Let’s work.”
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