Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb writes emotional letter to fans on The Players’ Tribune amid departure from major knee surgery

‘I can’t stop until I prove to everybody that I’m the undisputed best running back in this league.’

CLEVELAND — Browns fans are looking forward to the anticipated return of running back Nick Chubb on Sunday when Cleveland plays host the Cincinnati Bengals at Huntington Bank Field. Chubb has been out of action since suffering a gruesome knee injury in Week 2 of the 2023 season in Pittsburgh.

As Chubb prepares to return to the field, he wrote an emotional letter to Browns fans that was posted Wednesday on The Players’ Tribune.

In the post titled “Cleveland Got My Back,” Chubb looked back to the moments following the hit to his knee by Pittsburgh’s Minkah Fitzpatrick. He recalled that his phone had over 300 text messages of support and the first tweet he saw was from NBA star and Akron native LeBron James.

For real though, those messages meant the world to me. Just LeBron and everybody showing me love in a really dark time. But I can’t lie to you. At that moment, I was thinking that I had probably played my last NFL down.

The 28-year-old Chubb wrote the following about the city and Browns fans:

What’s amazing to me is how much support I had from the city of Cleveland. I know I’m not a guy who says a lot, but I do read the comments. I saw how much love you guys showed for me. In the NFL these days, that’s rare. It seemed like at times Browns fans were the only ones who weren’t seeing it as “just a business.”

You believed, so I believed.

Now I think you understand what I mean when I tell you I was meant for this city. I’ve tried to work my ass off every day to get us where we need to go, and even though we have gotten close, I feel like I have serious unfinished business. That’s why it hurt me so bad to go down last season. We were just starting to cook……

I can’t stop until I prove to everybody that I’m the undisputed best running back in this league, and I definitely can’t stop until we get the Browns back to the top of the AFC. It’s been too damn long.

Chubb may not have been the “undisputed best running back” in the NFL prior to his injury, but he was certainly in the discussion. In his six seasons, he rushed for 6,511 yards and 48 touchdowns while averaging 5.3 yards per carry. As a receiver, Chubb has caught 123 passes for 1,011 yards and another four scores.

In his letter, the four-time Pro Bowler also recalled the work ethic that was instilled in him by his mother and grandmother growing up in Georgia. In particular, he shared stories about his strict grandmother.

‘At six o’clock the laughin’ stops.’

“That was the rule. Because once the sun went down, that meant it was time to get serious and start thinking about your work the next day,” Chubb noted, mixing in stories about his grandmother making him write down things he had done wrong 100 times in a notebook. Chubb also looked back on a time when his grandmother asked him and his brother to gather rocks from a hill behind her house.

“Come on now, those rocks ain’t going to move themselves.”

“All day, we were gathering up these rocks. And she’s out there overseeing us, like a project manager or something. Finally, we got all the rocks picked up,” Chubb said, adding that his grandmother then wanted the rocks dumped back on the bank and spread out.

Here’s how Chubb wrapped up his letter:

Thank God that I healed.

Thank God that I can continue to play this great game.

Thank God that I get the chance to run it back.

You want to hear what the Browns told my agent, by the way?

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.”

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.

That’s enough talking for me. There’s only one thing left to do now. I gotta pay ya back.