Today’s the day I’ve been avoiding for a while.<\/p>\n
Twelve year old me could never imagine this day, and 30 year old me is wondering where all the time has gone.<\/p>\n
I’ve known for some time now, but I’m finally ready to share that I’m done playing football.<\/p>\n
I wanted to end my career on a healthy note, along with a winning season, and I was able to do that.<\/p>\n
At the beginning of this journey, I made many promises to myself. The #1 promise I made was that I would always stay true to who I am and never forget the things that made me, me.<\/p>\n
That promise meant always being the hardest working person, no matter where I was or what the circumstances were.<\/p>\n
And that started in Cedartown, Georgia.<\/p>\n
My mom and grandma instilled discipline and responsibility in me at a young age. They taught me that there’s a right way and a wrong way to do everything. There’s no in between.<\/p>\n
Laying concrete with my dad during those hot Georgia summers also played a part. That taught me how to push through pain and how to be a man.<\/p>\n
Up at the high school, my coaches held me to the highest standards and demanded the best out of me every single day.<\/p>\n
This is where I realized I could become a good football player simply by outworking everyone.<\/p>\n
All of these things, people, and experiences helped shape me into who I am today.<\/p>\n
But I also made promises to myself that I wasn’t able to keep.<\/p>\n
Like all competitors, I wanted to be the best.<\/p>\n
But not just the best…<\/p>\n
Unequivocally the best.<\/p>\n
No question, the best.<\/p>\n
In college, I wanted to win the Heisman, become an All American, and win a National Championship.<\/p>\n
In the NFL, I wanted to lead the league in rushing, win MVP, and win a Super Bowl for the city of Cleveland.<\/p>\n
I wasn’t able to accomplish any of those things.<\/p>\n
And what’s most frustrating, but also gives me peace, is that I know for a fact I gave it my all.<\/p>\n
I know I put myself in the right position to achieve all of those things. But it just didn’t happen for me.<\/p>\n
I know there’s a deeper meaning in that, one that I hope to understand someday. But if not, I’ll understand that it’s just life.<\/p>\n
Dealing with injuries was something else that wasn’t part of the plan.<\/p>\n
The only thing I could control after hurting my knee twice was getting back up, getting back to work, and getting back on the field.<\/p>\n
And I was able to do that both times.<\/p>\n
But I will tell you, going through a devastating knee injury at 19 is a lot different than going through one at 28.<\/p>\n
At UGA, when it first happened, I was young, naive, and didn’t fully understand the extent of the injury. I believe that played a part in me being able to bounce back and eventually return to form.<\/p>\n
At 28, it’s different.<\/p>\n
You understand that you have the rest of your life to look forward to.<\/p>\n
And that’s exactly what I started to do.<\/p>\n
I say this to all my brothers still on the field, still in the heat of it:<\/p>\n
There’s a life waiting for you after football, too.<\/p>\n
And health is the real wealth.<\/p>\n
I end my career in a great place.<\/p>\n
Even though there are some things I wish had happened differently, I can say that I have no regrets.<\/p>\n
Football was a huge blessing in my life. It opened so many doors, gave me opportunities I never could have imagined, and allowed me to meet some amazing people.<\/p>\n
I’m grateful for everyone I crossed paths with along the way, and I promise I took something from each of you.<\/p>\n
Thank you to my teammates, my coaches, the fans, my family, my friends, and anyone who ever cheered me on.<\/p>\n
Twelve year old me could have never imagined where this game would take us.<\/p>\n
But 30 year old me can look back and say we gave it everything we had.<\/p>\n
Till the day that I die, it will always be:<\/p>\n
GO DAWGS.<\/p>\n
GO BROWNS!!!<\/p>\n
Batman out.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today’s the day I’ve been avoiding for a while. Twelve year old me could never imagine this day,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[131],"tags":[60742,44676,240,2894,8056,60741,60740,3478],"class_list":["post-124136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chubb","tag-30-year-old","tag-browns","tag-chubb","tag-cleveland","tag-cleveland-browns","tag-nate","tag-nick","tag-nick-chubb"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/117200046178444391","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}