BEREA — Nick Chubb is not an emotional guy. The Browns running back isn't the type one sees, in good times or bad, letting his feelings come out.
So when people woke up Wednesday morning to a essay by Chubb on The Players Tribune , it caught people by surprise. That was multiplied by the contents, in which he doesn't just talk about his journey through the last 395 days from when he suffered a catastrophic knee injury against the Pittsburgh Steelers, but also the way he was raised by his mother and grandmother , as well his feelings for the city of Cleveland.
It was a side of Chubb few have ever seen since he was taken in the second round of the 2018 draft out of the University of Georgia. Yet, as the running back nears his expected return to the field Sunday at home against the Cincinnati Bengals, it was a side he was ready to show.
"Just trying to give back a little bit," Chubb said Wednesday afternoon. "I am kind of a closed off guy, so I thought it'd be good. I thought people would appreciate me opening up a little bit, especially at a time like this.”
Chubb's essay mirrors the journey he's been on to get this Sunday's return. It starts on that night in Pittsburgh, where the only thing going through his mind is, as the lead to the essay said, “Damn, I really did that s*** again.”
The "again" is the word that emphasizes a large part of what the entire journey — from the moment Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick rolled into his right leg to this week — has been about for Chubb, who also needed surgery on the same knee in 2015 while playing at Georgia. The first time through was tough enough; the second one, well, that was nearly a bridge too far.
"Nearly" being the key word there. The fact it wasn't was because of the work ethic Chubb's mother and grandmother instilled in him and because of, in a strange way, the familiarity he had with the process.
"I think just because I've been through it before and I knew what to expect," Chubb said. "I knew how to go about it. I think that definitely helped me and also just the support I've had with the trainers here, the strength coaches here, my people back home, the doctors at University Hospital. I think all that just gave me confidence in myself."
The one difference between the injury Chubb suffered while at Georgia and the one he suffered in Pittsburgh last year was that the second one also involved a tear of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). That required a second surgery, which happened in November.
One similarity between the two was the support Chubb felt from the fans. He's spoken previously of the similarities in the levels of passion showed by both Georgia fans and Browns fans, something he reiterated both in the essay and when he spoke Wednesday.
"We always hear that NFL isn't the same as college, but I can't tell the difference here in Cleveland," Chubb said. "It's the same love that I had in my college town in UGA. It's the same thing."
Except that, while recovering at Georgia, Chubb never had a moment quite like the one he had last Dec. 28 before the Browns' playoff-clinching win over the New York Jets. A little more than a month after his second knee surgery, he stood on a platform wearing a Batman mask, smashing a guitar into a pyrotechnic device.
The crowd that night roared like it's roared few times in the 25 years since the Browns returned to the league. A city showed its love for a player it had come to adore like few others, one it saw as one of its own.
"That's a special moment, too," Chubb said of the December's appearance. "We clinched the playoffs that night. I think it was a night game. Everyone was very excited, and just go out there. That's all I could do was bring energy to the crowd at that point. So whatever I need to do to get the win."
Chubb will get his chance to do more than just smash a guitar to get the crowd going this Sunday. He'll get a chance to face a Bengals team against which he's had as much success as any in his career: 903 rushing yards, a 5.2 per-carry average and seven touchdowns in 10 games.
It'll be a chance to not just motivate a crowd, but provide an on-field boost to a 1-5 Browns team that desperately needs one.
"I want to do whatever I can to go out there and help us win on Sunday, however that looks like," Chubb said. "If I'm just bringing energy to the crowd, if that helps us win, then I'm all for it."
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Nick Chubb 'trying to give back' with personal essay, return to field against Bengals
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