Nick Chubb Forever

It will take me a while to get over the shock of losing Nick Chubb. Losing football games is sadly very easy for me as a fan. I've had plenty of practice. Losing a beloved and worthy sports hero to something gruesome and awful in the middle of his prime cast a pall over me last night that was hard to handle. I tried hard not to see the injury because I just knew that I didn't need to see it. A sarcastic thanks to my good friend who texted me a still shot that I'll never be able to unsee. That pic kept creeping in my head all night as I struggled to maintain REM sleep.I hate for this to come off like an obituary for one of the greatest Cleveland Browns of all time, but this is the NFL. The games may be on Disney-owned TV channels weekly, but football players rarely get a Disney ending. And even when they do, sometimes you find out the audience was blindsided into believing fanciful stories like "The Blind Side."Nobody is rooting harder for Nick Chubb than I am. I want him to come back, play for the Browns again, and be the player he's always been. I want it for him even more than I want it for myself. I love that man for who he has been as a person on my favorite football team, almost as much for the incredible moments he's created on the field. In Chubb, we have a man who speaks loudest by seldom saying anything at all. He plays with an explosive violence that's always under control the minute the whistle is blown. He's the man who steps out of bounds rather than padding his scoring stats because it makes more football sense to kneel out the clock than give the ball back to the other team.The harsh reality of the human body and the NFL is that Nick Chubb's career with the Browns might very well be finished. I hate that this is true, but it must be acknowledged as a potential reality. Chubb is 28 years old, suffered a catastrophic injury, and will likely have an extended recovery timetable. There's no guarantee that his knee will ever get back to being NFL-ready. Again, I don't want this to be true, and if anyone can come back you'd bet on one of the strongest humans that has ever walked this earth. That's not an exaggeration. We've all seen the weight room videos.However, if he can't, 2024 is the last year of his extension with the Browns, and he's due $11.775 million. It feels crass even to say this because Nick Chubb deserves better, and I couldn't care less about the salary cap or Jimmy Haslam's money, but I would expect any NFL team to save both cash and cap money on a player who won't be able to play. Nick Chubb will have received approximately $28 million of his $36.6 million extension if that comes to pass.Since bursting into our hearts in 2018, Nick Chubb has been the one thing Browns fans could count on. He has racked up gaudy seasons year after year to the point that he gave the fanbase a complex that even still he wasn't getting the ball enough. When you average over five yards per carry for your career, your fans will justifiably think you should always get featured more. Who doesn't want even more of the best thing ever?And that's where all the sadness comes in from last night. I don't even care that the Browns lost to the Steelers. This team beat the pants off the Bengals and had to have everything that could possibly go wrong occur on Monday night for the Steelers to win that game. This team has things to work on, but every team does at this point in a young season. The Browns' defense should still be able to carry them to playoff contention if we get better bounces and performances than we saw last night. But I'll save that discussion for someone else at another time.This is about Nick Chubb. If last night was the end of the story, I'll work my butt off to get over it so I can skip to the pure unabashed love and appreciation for what Nick Chubb has brought to our city as a player and a person. If by some chance, Nick Chubb can defy the odds and find a way to write a new ending to the story, there will be nobody happier than this guy. Well, maybe Nick Chubb will be happier, but I doubt he'll ever show us.Heal up and be well, Nick Chubb. I think I can go out on a limb and say that you're every Browns fan's favorite player.