CLEVELAND, Ohio — The departure of Nick Chubb has reopened a wound for Cleveland Browns fans that never fully healed since his devastating knee injury two seasons ago. As news broke about Chubb’s potential signing with Houston, the reaction from the fanbase revealed just how deeply the soft-spoken running back had embedded himself in the heart of a city that values grit, determination, and humility above all else.
“Oh, absolutely, 100%. And that is why this is so hard for Browns fans to take. He’s not going to have an opportunity to finish his career with the Cleveland Browns and absolute fan favorite,” said Mary Kay Cabot on the Orange and Brown Talk podcast, capturing the sentiment of an entire city mourning the loss of its blue-collar hero.
What made Chubb so special wasn’t just his explosive runs or his ability to break tackles – it was everything about how he carried himself as a Cleveland Brown.
“I think he embodied the spirit of everything that is right about a Cleveland Browns football player, just in terms of that lunch pail work ethic, that blue collar work ethic. Put your head down, go to work, run through a brick wall,” Cabot explained. “Not a whole lot of fanfare, not a lot of celebrating in the end zone and all those kinds of things. I mean, Nick was just a meat and potatoes kind of guy.”
That description encapsulates perfectly why Chubb resonated so profoundly with Cleveland. In a league increasingly defined by flashy personalities and social media presence, Chubb’s quiet determination and relentless work ethic made him the personification of what Browns fans believe about themselves and their city.
The business side of football, however, waits for no one – not even beloved figures like Chubb. With the Browns drafting two running backs in Quinshon Judkins and Dylan Sampson, the writing was on the wall. The team is pivoting to a new chapter, hoping that these rookies can form the kind of explosive backfield that can power the team forward.
“I think on some level Browns fans probably understand that this is a business,” Cabot noted. “And really what they didn’t want to happen was for Nick Chubb to be sitting around without a role and without anything to do as their fourth string running back. They much preferred that he find a job elsewhere where he can get on the field and that probably wasn’t going to happen here.”
For fans looking for a silver lining, there is one – Chubb is potentially joining a Texans team poised for success with quarterback C.J. Stroud and fellow running back Joe Mixon. And as Dan Labbe points out, there’s another angle for Browns fans to root for Chubb: “They’re going to at least get to root for Nick Chubb in two, two games in particular because they’ll play Jacksonville twice. And obviously Browns fans want to see Jacksonville lose as many games as possible.”
This connection matters because the Browns own Jacksonville’s first-round pick in the upcoming draft – a pick that could potentially be packaged to secure their quarterback of the future.
The story of Nick Chubb and Cleveland isn’t necessarily over forever. As Labbe suggested, perhaps someday Chubb will return to sign a one-day contract and retire as a Brown. Until then, both parties move forward – Chubb to Houston and the Browns to a new backfield era – in what everyone hopes will truly be a win-win scenario.
But that doesn’t make today hurt any less for the Dawg Pound.
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Note: Artificial intelligence was used to help generate this story from the Cleveland Orange and Brown Talk Podcast by cleveland.com. Visitors to cleveland.com have asked for more text stories based on website podcast discussions.