Cleveland’s Nick Chubb: Best RB in the NFL? AFC North hardest division & RB contracts

FOLLOW THE PIVOT PODCAST: MERCH | https://pivotpodcast.com YOUTUBE | https://www.youtube.com/thepivotpodcast INSTAGRAM | https://instagram.com/thepivot TWITTER | https://twitter.com/thepivot TIKTOK | https://tiktok.com/@thepivot FACEBOOK | https://www.facebook.com/thepivotpodcast FOLLOW HAPPY DAD: https://www.instagram.com/happydad FIND HAPPY DAD: https://www.happydad.com/find The Pivot Training Camp tour continues and As we make our way through the AFC North, we had to sit with Cleveland’s Running Back Nick Chubb, who isn’t just one of the best in the AFC but is he the best in the NFL? We think so. A man of few words and often know as the quiet one, opens up to Ryan, Channing and Fred, sharing how he’s always let his work on the field do his talking for him and how he continues to focus on being the best teammate, leader and overall back in the league. Suffering a horrific injury as a college player, many thought Nick Chubb would never play again let alone play at the elite level he is today, but he continues to suppress expectations and quiet doubters with his numbers and consistency on the field. Nick talks about how the team’s focus is on being together, playing with the same intensity and having high goals this season in a very tough division. With Deshaun Watson starting at the quarterback position, Nick is confident the Browns are a full arsenal and ready to compete with the leagues best and make a post season run. Getting into the contract debates of this season and how the running back controversy is tough for a position that is expected to do so much yet receive so little because of wear and tear on the field, Nick opens up on his thoughts and words he shared with others back around the league as well as owners. His message is unwavering and he’s always been one to ignore the noise to keep his head down and be the best the position has seen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

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• 0:41Fred Taylor?

  How you feeling? Everything good? Light that shit up, bruh.

• 0:43Speaker 03

  I'm gonna do that.

• 0:44Fred Taylor?

  Waiting to see it. You know, I seen him when he was in the south. Get him right.

• 0:48Speaker 03

  I'm gonna get right.

• 0:48Fred Taylor?

  It's a tough one. It's a tough one. That's a good one.

• 0:54Speaker 03

  What's up? How you doing? Excellent. How are you? I'm doing well. What's happening?

• 1:00Ryan Clark?

  What's happening with you, boy?

• 1:01Speaker 03

  Not much.

• 1:01Ryan Clark?

  Good to see you, man.

• 1:02Speaker 03

  Good to see y'all.

• 1:03Ryan Clark?

  Yes, sir.

• 1:03Speaker 03

  You good?

• 1:04Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, well, we did, we stopped by Pittsburgh yesterday. They say they ready for you.

• 1:08Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:12Channing Crowder?

  Get on that grass first, eh?

• 1:13Speaker 03

  That too.

• 1:15Ryan Clark?

  Y'all got dogs in this division.

• 1:17Fred Taylor?

  Nah, yeah, this division gonna be tough.

• 1:19Ryan Clark?

  It's gonna, I tell you, I think it's gonna be the best one.

• 1:21Fred Taylor?

  Yeah. Uh, it's in the east.

• 1:23Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, it's gonna be good too.

• 1:25Channing Crowder?

  Yeah, see, he's a monster too.

• 1:26Ryan Clark?

  I just think though, like whoever finishes at the bottom of the north is better than a ton of teams. Cause you, I think just quarterback wise, it's you, Lamar, uh, Joe, but then Kenny too, all first rounders.

• 1:40Fred Taylor?

  Yep.

• 1:41Ryan Clark?

  You know what I'm saying? Three of the, three of the four been to Pro Bowls already. Like, it's just the whole division game. I'll have to fight every week.

• 1:49Channing Crowder?

  Two gonna come out for sure.

• 1:51Ryan Clark?

  Huh? Oh, they'll get two. Yeah, they got a chance to get three though. With the, with the seventh. You know what I'm saying, like that's the thing.

• 1:57Fred Taylor?

  We gotta start fast, but I think in the first four games, we got all three division teams.

• 2:02Ryan Clark?

  Really?

• 2:03Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, I think it's.

• 2:03Ryan Clark?

  I know the first two weeks was like that.

• 2:05Fred Taylor?

  Tennessee and then Baltimore.

• 2:07Ryan Clark?

  Dang.

• 2:07Fred Taylor?

  Yeah.

• 2:10Channing Crowder?

  You gotta start right. Core ready. Fast, fast, fast.

• 2:14Ryan Clark?

  That's what you want, though, man. I mean, that's what this level about.

• 2:17Fred Taylor?

  There's a lot of tiebreakers.

• 2:17Ryan Clark?

  Good on good.

• 2:18Fred Taylor?

  Yeah. Those are all tiebreakers. Earlier, division games early like that, play big later in the year.

• 2:25Ryan Clark?

  Seventeen weeks has me so throwed off, though. Y'all play seventeen games now?

• 2:29Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, you probably saw you said sixteen, so you know how.

• 2:32Ryan Clark?

  But you know, it was just coaches that tell you break it up into quarters.

• 2:35Fred Taylor?

  Yeah.

• 2:35Ryan Clark?

  They're like, man, you go three and one in every quarter and maybe two and two, like, shoot, you finish eleven. Like, I was always good with those numbers.

• 2:41Fred Taylor?

  Time to figure it out.

• 2:42Channing Crowder?

  Now you got the extra game.

• 2:43Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, you got the extra man.

• 2:44Channing Crowder?

  I was like, I know that. It's funny, the extra game sometime don't mean the damn thing.

• 2:47Ryan Clark?

  It's gonna be everything, dawg.

• 2:49Channing Crowder?

  It's gonna be everything, dawg.

• 2:50Fred Taylor?

  Eight and nine might get you in.

• 2:51Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 2:52Fred Taylor?

  It's crazy. Eight and nine.

• 2:54Ryan Clark?

  That's good, man. They're having this number.

• 2:57Channing Crowder?

  Yes, that's dope.

• 3:00Channing Crowder?

  That's cool.

• 3:02Fred Taylor?

  They got the wild ones, too.

• 3:03Channing Crowder?

  Yeah, they ain't even know, bruh. That's dope, bruh. They said they team.

• 3:08Ryan Clark?

  You guys remember me with this young?

• 3:09Fred Taylor?

  What's up, man?

• 3:10Ryan Clark?

  I do, Coach. I do, Coach. What's up with you, Coach? How you doing?

• 3:12Fred Taylor?

  How you feeling? Sipping good, man?

• 3:14Ryan Clark?

  Sipping on it, bro.

• 3:17Ryan Clark?

  I tell the guys all the time.

• 3:19Speaker 06

  First year you played football?

• 3:21Fred Taylor?

  Mm-hmm.

• 3:21Speaker 06

  What was your number? Sixty-five.

• 3:24Ryan Clark?

  Sixty? Ninety-four.

• 3:27Channing Crowder?

  I played DN. I played DN. I was a terrible nose guy.

• 3:32Fred Taylor?

  And tight end.

• 3:32Speaker 06

  I was fifty-five.

• 3:33Fred Taylor?

  Fifty-five?

• 3:35Speaker 06

  Uh, I was a linebacker. But then playing quarterback wearing number fifty-five.

• 3:39Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 3:40Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 3:40Speaker 06

  But that's why I always remind the guys, like, this is a kid's game.

• 3:43Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 3:44Speaker 06

  To be able to see this and see these guys.

• 3:45Ryan Clark?

  That is awesome.

• 3:46Fred Taylor?

  Now, when you got that helmet, that was the best feeling. Of any, any other equipment you got, the helmet was the staple.

• 3:52Speaker 06

  Attic of the YMCA.

• 3:53Ryan Clark?

  That's what we did.

• 3:54Speaker 06

  There's no air. And you're like, here, here's this helmet from nineteen sixty-four. Does it still fit you?

• 4:00Ryan Clark?

  We had this, we had a shed and everybody was just standing in line and you walk in the shed and they look through the helmets. You didn't get what face mask you wore, you just got the helmet that fit.

• 4:08Channing Crowder?

  You wasn't good, you was in the back of the line. You was taking them big, big ass passes.

• 4:13Speaker 06

  Do you guys have kids playing football? You guys have kids?

• 4:15Channing Crowder?

  It's my son's first year.

• 4:16Speaker 06

  How old?

• 4:16Channing Crowder?

  Eleven.

• 4:17Speaker 06

  Okay. Yeah. So I got an, I have an eleven-year-old playing as well.

• 4:20Ryan Clark?

  Mm-hmm.

• 4:20Speaker 06

  And. Do you remember how hard it was to put the, your kneepads in your pants?

• 4:25Fred Taylor?

  Yeah.

• 4:25Speaker 06

  Now, they're sewn in.

• 4:26Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 4:27Speaker 06

  Remember those days?

• 4:28Channing Crowder?

  It's a different thing.

• 4:29Speaker 06

  Turn it inside out.

• 4:30Ryan Clark?

  Yeah. I would flip my pants inside out and put all my pads in first. And then you just stick your hand in and pull them back through.

• 4:36Fred Taylor?

  What were we talking about? The big shoulder pads and big thigh pads?

• 4:38Ryan Clark?

  I wanted the big thigh pads.

• 4:39Fred Taylor?

  Now, everybody want the smallest thing making fun.

• 4:41Speaker 06

  I know, you watched the tape from the 80s, shows up those shoulder pads.

• 4:45Fred Taylor?

  Dudes.

• 4:46Speaker 06

  Even like quarterbacks.

• 4:47Ryan Clark?

  And everybody, and everybody that run, they did like, they was running like this. Cause the pads are flapping around.

• 4:52Speaker 06

  Oh, Nick, ready?

• 4:52Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 4:53Speaker 06

  Okay, we'll go.

• 4:54Ryan Clark?

  Okay.

• 4:54Speaker 06

  You got, we'll be up on our edge, Coach.

• 4:56Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, we're good, great.

• 4:56Speaker 06

  We'll be up on our edge.

• 4:57Ryan Clark?

  Yes, sir. Good to see you too, Coach. Yes, sir.

• 4:59Channing Crowder?

  Great to have you, Coach.

• 4:59Ryan Clark?

  Thanks for coming out.

• 5:00Channing Crowder?

  Great seeing you.

• 5:01Fred Taylor?

  All right, Coach. Good to see you, man.

• 5:02Ryan Clark?

  I was telling Pat P. that when we was in Pittsburgh. I said, man, I said, when you get in these competitive rooms and the environment makes you better. I said, if I'm coming to you on Wednesday, A. Pat P., look, I watched first and second down pass, right? I was like, when they get to play action, we get this formation, here's how we gonna pass this off. I said, if you can't come back to me, well, yeah, I saw that too. I was thinking we do this. I said, that's an issue.

• 5:23Fred Taylor?

  Yep.

• 5:24Channing Crowder?

  Very.

• 5:24Ryan Clark?

  I said, so eventually, I said, if you a competitor and you care, eventually you like, hey, RC ain't gonna be coming to me on Wednesday with stuff I don't know.

• 5:32Channing Crowder?

  I'm confused.

• 5:32Ryan Clark?

  And I'm confused. Or, or, or, or stuff I can't have conversations about, or I can't bring him something to get better.

• 5:38Fred Taylor?

  I told McVay that same thing. What we used to do on Wednesdays, we take the, the, the leader or the vet in whatever position group.

• 5:45Ryan Clark?

  Mm-hmm.

• 5:46Fred Taylor?

  We just go to their crib and let the tape run for like an hour. And like, let's just share notes together, communicate right there.

• 5:52Ryan Clark?

  Tuesday night, that's what I'll watch. I just only wanted to be prepared for that.

• 5:56Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 5:56Ryan Clark?

  You know, and then I'd move into whatever we were doing the next day, that's what I'd watch. Then on Friday, I'd watch, on Friday, I'd watch the games and have it called plays. But I wouldn't watch cut-ups till Friday. This Saturday, I wasn't watching nothing.

• 6:11Channing Crowder?

  Not nothing on Saturday.

• 6:11Ryan Clark?

  Cause I was like, if I don't know it now, it ain't that important. If I, hey, if I'd have done all this work.

• 6:18Fred Taylor?

  Guys be in front of their locker rooms, in front of their locker with notes.

• 6:21Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 6:22Fred Taylor?

  On Sunday on game day, like, it's time to just chill right now. Get your body together, get your mind right.

• 6:27Ryan Clark?

  I was like, I didn't wanna read something late and be thinking about it the whole game.

• 6:31Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 6:31Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 6:32Ryan Clark?

  Oh, when they get three by, when I get three by one, uh, Z motion and two by two is this. Nah, if I don't know that by now, it's okay. That be the thing.

• 6:41Speaker 07

  I knew my job was to stop the run. He was not gonna have a run, I ain't know what was coming.

• 6:46Fred Taylor?

  A lot of time, it's the luck of the hold too. Unless you have different little nuggets. Like cover two high backside.

• 6:51Speaker 07

  You got any weak support?

• 6:54Ryan Clark?

  Go! What's up, man?

• 6:56Speaker 07

  What's up?

• 6:56Fred Taylor?

  What's up, G?

• 6:57Speaker 07

  What's up?

• 6:58Ryan Clark?

  What's up, dawg? What up, Nick, man? Good to see you, man. Hey, you know, when running backs go around, I just gotta bow my neck one time, Chan. And then, I see, I see the reaction. It just seen that Nick carried, so I put him back, I put my traps back down.

• 7:11Fred Taylor?

  I thought Fred was big, good Nick.

• 7:14Ryan Clark?

  Bro, when he was sitting next to Maurice Jones Drew the other day, who is rounder now? Lack of a better term.

• 7:22Fred Taylor?

  Stay off my teammates, man. That's still my dog.

• 7:25Ryan Clark?

  And I was like, dang, Nick Wyatt dude, man.

• 7:28Speaker 07

  He's just a big dude.

• 7:54Ryan Clark?

  But, man, thank you so much, man.

• 7:55Speaker 07

  Yeah, I appreciate it.

• 7:56Ryan Clark?

  And welcome to the show. I'm excited, because I never hear you talk. I didn't know you had a voice till like three weeks ago. Obviously, Fred Taylor, Chan, I'm RC. I just want to get right into it, because you're just giving us your time. In the time of year, we understand it's tight. When you left Georgia, you wrote a letter to the fans. And in that, it was, it said, "My family has started a legacy, and I want to make them proud." And in that, speaking of Chubb Town. John Henry Chubb, you know, was in, was it North Carolina, South Carolina?

• 8:28Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 8:29Ryan Clark?

  Right, and they, they go down, eight sons.

• 8:32Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 8:32Ryan Clark?

  One daughter, and they start Chubb Town.

• 8:34Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 8:34Ryan Clark?

  Uh, they were free blacks at the time. When you have that sort of legacy behind your name, what does that mean to you?

• 8:43Speaker 07

  I mean, it means a lot. I know I'm carrying a lot with my name, you know, it's not, it's not just me as an individual, it's a legacy, as you say, you know. My family, they have a neat story, you know, very strong people from eighteen hundreds, seventy hundreds to be free at that time, you know, it's incredible. And just hearing the stories from growing up, living really close to Chubb Town and my dad being a part of Chubb Town helped my dad's dad building, you know, still working in and things like that. I mean, it's special to me, you know, and to be able to go back and see when my family started and to have Chubb now, I mean, like Bradley and they're playing in the NFL, I mean, it's definitely special.

• 9:12Channing Crowder?

  Having that, I want to say pressure, but that responsibility of everything, like you're saying, coming out of, you know, freed slavery and then having a voice, having the influence that you have now, is there anything more that you feel on yourself or it's just you were born with it?

• 9:27Speaker 07

  I think I was born with it. I think because of what they did back then, you know, just how strong they were, you know, I feel like it's inside of me, you know, just if they can go through that, which I can't imagine though, at that time, what they had to face, you know, me playing a sport of football, which is fun, you know, I think it carried over through me.

• 9:44Fred Taylor?

  So we were driving in this morning and we saw a sign coming in, some exit that says Strongville.

• 9:50Speaker 07

  Yeah, yeah.

• 9:51Fred Taylor?

  So you're from Chubb Town or Strongville? When we were doing research, we saw some high school photos, you running track.

• 9:58Speaker 07

  Yeah, yeah.

• 9:58Fred Taylor?

  Looked like you had on a wrestling uniform.

• 10:00Speaker 07

  I did, one piece.

• 10:01Fred Taylor?

  But you was busting up out of that thing. Growing up, how often did the parents or the other coaches ask for your birth certificate? Because you were a beast, man.

• 10:10Speaker 07

  Yeah, I know. I think in high school, my junior, senior year, I kind of developed, like I looked like this back in high school. And so I think, I think at that point, everybody, I got the steroids, you know, he's on steroids, he's juicing, I got all of that, you know, people not believing my age, but I mean, I just worked, that's all I did, I just worked out in high school like three times a day, like legitimately, yeah.

• 10:31Ryan Clark?

  You know, you made a decision, you were a four-star athlete, as Fred was talking about, you led the state of Georgia in Russian, you went for what, twenty-six-hundred one year, I think, twenty-six-hundred the next year, thirty-eight tubs, then forty-one tubs. You know, Georgia is a football state, much like Louisiana, but you make the decision to go to Georgia when Todd Gurley was there, I think Marshall was there as well, Sony Michelle commits with you, who's a five-star. When you are the man at Cedar Town and you're the guy, what was it about Georgia that made that the right place for you, especially with all the competition you knew you'd have there?

• 11:11Speaker 07

  But the biggest thing was Georgia was home to me. You know, I was born and raised there. I love living there. One day I wanna, when I'm retired, I wanna live in Georgia. So I feel like Georgia was mine, even though they're already going there. None of those guys were from Georgia. And so I feel like I had that edge, you know, and also the competition. I mean, I played behind, Todd was a, he was a junior when I got there, him and Keith. So I could play behind them one year, you know. Hopefully they leave, which Ty, Ty ended up leaving. Keith stayed another year, but also, you know, playing with Sony. And I think me and him became like, we're brothers now because, because that decision we both made. And thinking, I think back then, looking at it, I was nervous, you know. Going as a freshman, everyone's saying I'm gonna get red-shirted because I was a fourth star. Sony was five-star. Keith and Todd already playing really good ball.

• 11:53Speaker 07

  So like, like the pressure thing, man, I just, I use that to my will. You know, I continue to grind and I just go back to work.

• 11:59Ryan Clark?

  Question on Sony, you said you're like brothers. He recently retired. Did you have any conversations with him before or after making that decision?

• 12:09Speaker 07

  You know, being honest, I haven't talked to him yet, you know. I don't really understand what went into it. He was trying hard to make a team and he finally got picked up by the Rams. And then he retires, you know, I haven't, I haven't, I called him, but he was on the plane. He called me back, I was in camp. We, we haven't talked yet, but I need like a lot of time for us to sit down and talk. So I haven't hit him yet, but I'm, I'm sure we're gonna figure it out.

• 12:29Fred Taylor?

  So you, you mentioned competition. When you got here was Carlos Hyde and I think Duke Johnson, 2018. You guys traded Carlos to Jacksonville. And you start, you, you were inserted as a starter. You haven't looked back since then. Four straight Pro Bowls, tons and tons of carry. You, you lead the all running backs in yards, I think over like 6,300 yards in five years. Some would probably call it wearing terror in this state where the, where the game is. But do you consider yourself the best running back in football? And let me say this, you weren't always in my top five backs. And it's no not necessarily on you. It's just me and my biasness. You were a bulldog, I'm a gator. So I was a little kind of.

• 13:13Speaker 07

  I get it, I get it.

• 13:14Fred Taylor?

  I was a little kind of sideways with that. But now you're, you're number one in my book right now. So competition, like that's just your thing. That's what drives you the most.

• 13:24Speaker 07

  It is, man. It drives me, that's, that fuel is my fire, just. You know, I'm not active on Twitter and social media, but I see everything. You know, I do search my name. I see who's talking. I'm guilty of that. I see where they got me ranked. I see all that stuff. And I don't say anything. No, I just put my head down. I go to work. That's why I'm here. That's what's got me to this point, just seeing everything, hearing everything, and just proving everybody wrong.

• 13:47Fred Taylor?

  I guess I can go back and ask the original question. Are you the best back in the league?

• 13:52Speaker 07

  I think I am. Think I'm the best back.

• 13:55Ryan Clark?

  As you talk about Georgia with the competition with Gurley and Michelle, and you have no problem going and going to play, and then come here, Kareem was here, and you have other good backs. As a running back, doesn't that take away from your carries, your yards, your numbers that are going to get you paid and get you the respect that people are saying it? Like, if I was a running back, I don't want nobody else good in the backfield. So I want all the carries. Shouldn't y'all running backs be selfish?

• 14:18Speaker 07

  That story of my life, man, playing with Sony all through our college and coming here and, you know, playing with Kareem. But you can look at it like that if you want, but me personally, I like it because, I mean, you're sharing the load in a way, and also, I mean, it helps you out in the long run. But the way I approach it is I know I got a certain amount of carries, so I got to break one. I got to break one, break two, and I get the chance because I know at some point Kareem's going to get a chance to break one, too. I can't let him outperform me, you know? So at some point, I got to get to hit the home run, and I got to separate myself from whoever I'm sharing the backfield with.

• 14:50Ryan Clark?

  I want to take you back because you mentioned all the competition that you've played with. It's October 2015, early on against Tennessee. You get a carry. I think it's a video that most of us have watched and winced in seeing it live. Everyone's scared because you were such a dynamic player as a young sophomore at Georgia. But to see something like that happen to a young man with so much promise, it's always, will he ever be the same? Can this guy get back to everything he's always been? When you're lying on that field in Tennessee, knowing you've suffered a serious knee injury, what were the thoughts in your head as a young man?

• 15:30Speaker 08

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• 15:31Speaker 09

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• 15:50Speaker 09

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• 16:01Speaker 07

  Yeah, I still remember it, man. It was, um, it was a crazy time for me just because I had, you know, incredible freshman season and then I saw from my year I was doing good to I think like six games, 700 yards, you know, I'm in a Heisman campaign and everything is going perfectly for me. And in that one play, you know, I pretty much lost it all. I tore everything in my left knee except my ACL, my MCL. So everything else is, you name it, it was, it was torn, even my hamstring, you know, it was bad. And in that moment, I didn't understand the severity of it because I was young. I just assumed it was ACL, you know, I being a running back, you know, I tore my ACL. It happens, but once I saw the video and I saw how my doctors were, you know, kind of talking and whispering amongst themselves, I realized it was bad. I remember thinking back to like when I was in high school, I saw Lattimore, he had, he had kind of a similar injury.

• 16:45Speaker 07

  And so I, I don't know what happened with him, but I know he didn't really come back. He didn't really play anymore. So in my mind, I'm thinking, you know, my career is probably over, but I'm thankful for Georgia, you know, my family and just God, just for me getting back to myself and being able to, you know, make it to the NFL and have a great senior year at Georgia and just to be where I am now, you know, I'm just thankful that, you know, things didn't go that bad for me.

• 17:08Ryan Clark?

  You know, you've gotten to the point now, you know, you're looked at as the premier back in the league and right now, running backs are in a position that seems to be devaluing their worth as players, yet continuing to utilize them for success on the field. You guys had an opportunity to get on the Zoom call and this was prior to Saquon deciding to go to camp and, you know, sign the one year deal with the New York Giants. But there's Tony Pollard, who was out there, who will be playing on the one year. Josh Jacobs, you know, not reporting to camp and you, who aren't always extremely vocal,

• 17:48Ryan Clark?

  you spoke about the call and some of the things that you guys tried to communicate during that call. How do you feel about the running back position and the way that they are being treated as it pertains to contract negotiations?

• 18:03Speaker 07

  Yeah. I think we're in a tough spot. I mean, be fair, you can, you understand too. I mean, they use us in every way. You know, we run the ball, we catch, we block. That's the three most important things in football, and we do all three at a high level. But when it comes to negotiations, they don't, they don't value that because of our wear and tear. I assume that's why. They assume we will get hurt, you know, at a faster rate than anyone else. And they also assume that we can easily be replaced. Yeah, it's tough. That's why, that's why, you know, I work as hard as I can because for one, stay healthy and two, I don't want to be replaceable. You know, I don't want, they think anyone can come in and do what I do. But as far as the whole, I mean, they have us where they want us. I mean, what, what can we ultimately do? You know, at the end of the day, it's their call. We

• 18:46Speaker 07

  can sit out, but we're gonna lose money and they can replace us. They're, they're gonna try to replace us. And in some cases, it's worked. I mean, Eckler came in behind Ingram, you know, he's, he did good.

• 18:55Channing Crowder?

  You had James Connor.

• 18:56Speaker 07

  James Connor came behind him and he did good. It's successful. So I don't want to be in that situation where somebody come behind me and take my spot. So I'm healthy. First thing, first I'm healthy and I'm separating myself from everyone around me.

• 19:07Channing Crowder?

  I guess the, I won't say the argument, but the thought is that a team with a running game can't keep up with them quarterbacks. If you're gonna run the ball, you need 12, 15 plays to score, or Patrick Mahomes go out there and two and three and bing, bing, bing, bing, bing. What would you say to people that say, hey, hey, that you can't have a Super Bowl winning team right now if it's run based?

• 19:25Speaker 07

  I think the difference in passing or running the ball is, I mean, anybody can go out there and pass and, you know, it's pretty, it's fast, you know, efficient. But to beat a team down, you gotta run the ball. To physically beat them down, you run the ball. And you can go out there and pass, they gonna pass too. It's gonna be a pass like a shootout, you know. But when you run the ball, you physically beat a team down, they will quit. I think that's the biggest thing. Like, you want a team to quit and like you, you run the ball down their throat. And that's, that's the way to stop them. And if a team can, if that can be their mindset, I think that's better than a passive team.

• 19:52Fred Taylor?

  Some of your team goals, I'm sure, would be to win the division. But personal goals, uh, short term and long term. Uh, what are some of your short term goals? And, and as far as long term, do you ever look at the history of Jim Brown and say, I want to try to outdo him? You know, uh, take away his team. Well, not take away, but outdo his team, Mark?

• 20:18Speaker 07

  You know, Jim has some crazy stats. I don't know. I don't know if I can tell you what, you know, what the yards. Yeah, I am halfway there. I am halfway there, but um. That story of my life too, man, playing by Herschel Walker, I couldn't catch him. And then like Jim Brown, like, you know, I want to go somewhere first and set the record, but you know, it is what it is. You know, I can try my best. I don't really have personal goals. You know, I don't, I just work as hard as I can and I feel like, you know, everything will work out for me. But I think, I think now going into year six, I've had these, you know, steady years, a thousand yards, thousand yards. If I want that, like, that one crazy breakout year, you know, like, just a crazy, a crazy year, you know, not, not just a typical, quiet, silent, 150 yard game, like, you know, something that, like flashy or something.

• 21:02Fred Taylor?

  So like, like 300, breaking the single, single game mark?

• 21:05Speaker 07

  I ain't even had 300, I ain't even had 200 yard game yet.

• 21:08Fred Taylor?

  No?

• 21:08Speaker 07

  No, I haven't. So I mean, even, even that, like, something like, something different that's also, you know, great.

• 21:13Fred Taylor?

  But when looking at your numbers, the one thing that stand out the most to me is your career average per carry. In this amount of time, I think you've had um around 1,200 carries. You're averaging over 5.2, you know, per carry, which is, I think it would lead all running backs in the history of the game.

• 21:31Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 21:31Fred Taylor?

  You know, at, at that amount of carries per career.

• 21:34Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 21:35Fred Taylor?

  Um, I think one of your strongest attributes are obviously your power. People underestimate your shift and your sense and your vision. You know, what would you consider your strongest point?

• 21:47Speaker 07

  Strongest point? That's a great question. I would, I would say my power and my vision. Power, vision, explosiveness, I would say, but you know, the vision, that, that's just kind of an instinct, you know, I, I'll be honest with you, I don't, I don't make the best reads all the time, but my, my strength, you know, it over, it overcomes that just because I can break a tackle. You know, if I make a bad read, I'm just going to try to break the tackle and make it right.

• 22:11Fred Taylor?

  Do you ever look at the film and say, damn, how the hell I did that?

• 22:14Speaker 07

  I have, well, I have once in a while. Every, every now and then I look at the film, I don't know, I don't know how I did that. I don't even remember how I did it. It was like COVID year. I made a play against the, um, the Eagles, like I jumped cut and I reversed and I did some crazy play. And I, I didn't know I even did it. And the next week in practice, Coach Stump, he like has the drill set of like the play I made. I'm like, I can't, I don't even know what I, he told me to do it again. I don't know what I did.

• 22:37Fred Taylor?

  Right, right.

• 22:38Speaker 07

  It just happened so fast.

• 22:39Ryan Clark?

  Can I talk about the Nick Chubb thirst traps? Right, so you, you know, you're not active on social media, you said, but you will, you know, search your name just to get a little motivation from people doubting you, especially after all of your accomplishments. I know you're not going to be on social media with your shirt off and stuff like that, but a Nick Chubb thirst trap, they come around every off-season around July, right? There's gonna be like 700 pounds on the squat bar. It's gonna be a lot of high school kids jumping around real fired up. They used a tsunami bar so it could bend and now everybody on TV is like, "Oh, the bar's bending." I'm like, "Well, that's what it's supposed to do, guys. Nick's tricking y'all. He ain't gonna say that."

• 23:22Ryan Clark?

  But you go back to your high school in Cedar Town and work out, and we're not in the time where Fred played, right? Where you had to train in the sandbox by yourself because they didn't have facilities around in the early 50s. You know, this is probably right after Chubb Town was founded. But now for real, you know, you go back every year. Jamie Abrams, who's the coach that was hired there, said you were at the introductory meeting, right? Like you were just one of the guys. What is it? Mike Worthington, I think, is the trainer there. You said you owe him so much for your career. In an age where you get to watch everybody train because at these different facilities and these different places, you still choose to go back to your hometown and get that real grind in.

• 24:06Ryan Clark?

  What is it about your school? What is it about where you're from? What is it about that training that always brings you back home?

• 24:13Speaker 07

  The biggest thing for me is just, you know, I remember how hungry I was as a high school kid, and it's so hard for me to tap into that mindset again. You know, I can't be that hungry kid that worked out three times a day mentally. I just can't because I, I mean, I have a lot of things now. I'm successful, so that's the closest thing I can do to feel like I'm still that high school kid is to go back to my hometown with Mikey Worthington in the same weight room when I had nothing, you know? That's the same place I had nothing then. It's the same coach who was there who believed in me as a young kid. To go back and just to feel all of that again, that it is just, it works magic for me. It's a blessing I'm able to do that.

• 24:55Speaker 07

  It's a special feeling and, I mean, all my success comes from me going home. And middle of Cedar Town, which is nothing around and just grinding for six months straight.

• 25:05Ryan Clark?

  And, and bro, on leg day, you just say, put it all on the bar? Like, is that a number? Because you count six seventy, seven fifty, whatever. It's just all of it, coach. Put it all on there.

• 25:15Speaker 07

  And the funny thing about it, I don't really have a max. I just stop at some point. Like, I just be like, alright, that's enough. That's enough for this year, you know? But, um, yeah, it's because Worthington, man, he pushes me, man. Sometimes I don't feel like doing all that weight. He say, Nick, you was in high school, you would have did it. He just like takes me back to, you know, me being hungry and he just stays on me, makes sure I'm working every day. And I get on that bar and I squat and that's motivation too. I mean, I'm, I don't want to fall and get hurt, get down. So I gotta, I gotta pull, pull it up.

• 25:43Ryan Clark?

  You know, before every game, right, there's the, the uniform check man, right? The guy that comes around, he checks your uniform and if you're a DB, there is something you're gonna have to dispute every game, right? Is a towel in the wrong place, my socks or something like that? I know for certain Nick Chubb has never in life gotten a uniform fine. You remember the, you know, the little dude, the uniform guy that's on the wall? That got his gloves on and he stands straight up and his socks are pulled all the way to this spot?

• 26:14Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 26:15Ryan Clark?

  You dress exactly like that every game.

• 26:18Speaker 07

  I hear that, I hear that all the time.

• 26:19Ryan Clark?

  Why no swag? Why don't you try at all, bro?

• 26:22Speaker 07

  I don't know what they want me to do. I got the socks and the gloves on, like, what else you want me to wear? Fleeve, Vazir? That's just not me. I'm just, I'm just not that person. And my mind is so focused on the game, man, I can't, that, that would distract me. And I don't, I don't like, I like my hands. I don't like, I don't want to feel nothing no more. I want to feel that ball on my arms. I gotta feel that ball. So, I mean, that's, that's just who I am. That's just what I do.

• 26:43Fred Taylor?

  Is, is the Cle- is the Cleveland market big enough for a superstar like yourself?

• 26:48Speaker 07

  Well, I'll say it is. I'm here, so I, I think it is. I mean, they had LeBron, so.

• 26:55Channing Crowder?

  That's a high quality point.

• 26:58Fred Taylor?

  That is a high quality point.

• 26:59Speaker 07

  I'm nowhere near that level.

• 27:00Fred Taylor?

  That's a high quality point, but I say it because I think sometimes when you have those conversations, you know, about the running backs, you know, some guys are flashy. You know, if you take Saquon, for example, who's also one of my favorites, playing in the New York market. You know, I've always felt like a lot of guys that play in that market, they can do the, even though he's not doing the bare minimum, they can do the bare minimum, and they'll get such high praise. Whereas a guy like yourself who's down here grinding, you don't say much, you just come to work, you know, make guys look silly on the field, and then you don't get the same type of love when it comes to marketability. So that's the reason I asked that question.

• 27:39Speaker 07

  Yeah, I see that too, but I also think, just because, I think inside of Cleveland, like the people and the fans here, I feel like they give me that hype and that recognition that I deserve. I feel like we match perfectly, like how I approach the game, how I work. The fans of Cleveland love that, you know, and I love working to win games for them too. So it's a mutual thing, and inside of Cleveland, I am like, I am that the man, you know. Outside the world, you know, it is what it is, they got other opinions, but I like being right here.

• 28:09Channing Crowder?

  On the field and off the field, you got four now. You can't stack their box.

• 28:13Speaker 07

  Yeah, yeah.

• 28:14Channing Crowder?

  If you're Sean Back, then you better stack their box. Have you seen, have you, the plan and just seeing how, or thinking about how much easier your job is gonna be now that you got four?

• 28:22Speaker 07

  Oh, I love it, man. I've been saying two high safeties, I don't ever see two high safeties. Check to the run, you know, but yeah, I love it. It'll definitely make my job easier, make the O-line job easier. I mean, you pick your poison, you want to stack the box, I mean, the sun can make any throw on the field. You want to lighten the box, you know, we can do any run we want. So I think it's definitely working in our favor.

• 28:40Ryan Clark?

  You know, and after the 2000, I think it was 19 season, you were on Jim Rome, which is another shocking development in my studies. And you know, you said that it was a talented team, but you felt like y'all fell short. And you mentioned how when...

• 28:59Ryan Clark?

  You have a talented team, but you don't feel like the work is to the level that it needs to be. You don't find the success you're looking for. What is this team, which is immensely talented? When you think about Coop, Elijah Moore, David and Joku, yourself. You mentioned Deshaun Watson, adding pieces defensively as well. And Kevin Stefanski, who's one of the best offensive minds in football. From the outside looking in, it's okay, this should be the year. The other side of it is too, the AFC North is stacked, right? You have first round quarterbacks everywhere. You have teams that's going to the Super Bowl, MVPs, all of those things. What are you guys focusing on this year? So all of that talent can equal wins on the football field?

• 29:42Speaker 07

  Yeah. The biggest thing we're focusing on is ourselves. You know, we practiced in Green Bar for 10 days. We were no, it was private, no fans were there. It was just us worrying about us. And then we came home and we're not really doing much. And we're not really traveling. We have a joint practice with Philly. But other than that, I mean, it's just us worrying about us. Our public days, like maybe like eight days, fans can come. And I think just the biggest thing is us being the Browns and head down, grinding and working. And one of our saying is that we just work. We're a team and we work. And I think this year, we've been working very hard. You know, guys have been doing extra. Guys have been in the weight room longer, stretching more. And I think all of that just coming together, it's in a position where we are a better team.

• 30:26Ryan Clark?

  You know, going forward, when you think about what the traditions here are. You mentioned your fans, bro. Like when I played in Pittsburgh, when we came here, we expected to win. Ben Roethlisberger won a lot of games here. But the fans always showed up. They always talked cash money from the stands. And they've been waiting for a champion, waiting for that team to explode and bring something to Pittsburgh that they haven't had. When you think about the city of Cleveland, how it fits you, how much though do you want to get that win for these fans who have supported no matter what was going on in Cleveland? They've supported the Browns.

• 31:07Speaker 07

  Yeah, I mean, these fans here are the best in the world, man. They 0 on 16, they're gonna be, they're gonna, they're gonna be full and it's gonna be all Browns fan like, we're like, we're undefeated. They're rowdy and intense and I think, man, just, just having them at our side through thick and thin to, we've been horrible at times, like even when I've been here, we've been bad and they're, they're been right there with us, you know, no matter what. And I think they deserve it more than anybody, just to have a, at least a winning team, like we can give them a winning team at least, you know, but to have further than that, like a championship, a Super Bowl. I mean, man, I've, I've heard stories about, you know, when, when LeBron James won the championship and they had the parade, I heard that it was crazy. And the people would say, you know, that'd be nothing compared to if y'all won Super Bowl and I believe that wholeheartedly. I think if we won Super Bowl,

• 31:52Speaker 07

  I can't even imagine what it would look like downtown. It would, it would be bad.

• 31:55Ryan Clark?

  What do you care about other than being the best running back you can possibly be? I know you supported, uh, sudden infant death. You wanted to bring awareness to that with your cleats. You know, you go back home and train for six months. What are your other interests other than this?

• 32:16Speaker 07

  It's my family, you know, um, my mom, my brother, my little sister and, and my brother and little sister's kids. They have, um, my, my brother has a daughter, my sister has, has a son. So I think just hanging out with them at home, that's, that's all I care about, my family and family and football.

• 32:32Ryan Clark?

  You know, you mentioned family and football and this all started from that point, uh, talking about Chubb Town and, you know, your grandfather and all the things that they've done to build a tradition in that name. You know, Fred mentioned the goals of the Jim Browns and obviously individual goals that you can have yearly. But when you think about where you could be going forward as it pertains to your place in this game, do you think Hall of Fame? Do you think greatest running back ever? Because Fred often says he felt like if he set those goals earlier, he would have been a different player. He would have approached it a different way. Do you ever think?

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• 33:45Ryan Clark?

  That far ahead?

• 33:47Speaker 07

  It's hard for me to think that far ahead. You know, just how I approach my days, just day by day. So, you know, the work I put in today, I hope it does lead me to, you know, a better future Hall of Famer. But it's hard for me to think about that when I, we can't even get eight wins. You know, it's hard for me to think about that when we're playing at this, at this level. You know, my mind is just on helping my team win games and, you know, playing, playing my best to help my team win. I wanna, I wanna have a great game to help my team win. You know, that's, that's the biggest thing for me.

• 34:17Ryan Clark?

  How does that, how does that work for you though, right? You, great high school player. You, you attend Georgia, right? A team that's always gonna win, playing in the best conference in football. And you've now been in this place where it's like, we can't get over the hump. We could get to the playoffs, get a win. We lose to the Kansas City Chiefs. We're expecting to be better the next year. The bottom falls out, right? There, it seems like there's always another shoe that has dropped here. How have you maintained your drive and maintained who you are as a person in those times?

• 34:52Speaker 07

  Man, it just goes back to me being in high school, just how, how I came up, how I always worked. And, um, it's just, it's instilled inside of me. I think the biggest way, you know, because I'll stay on top of my game. You know, I'm disciplined, I work hard, I do everything right. And on Sundays, I wanna, I go out and I try to perform at my, at my best. So the biggest thing to go from good to great for me, to contribute to the team, is bringing guys with me. You know, it's been times where I go do extra by myself. And at the end of the day, that's helping me out, but it's not helping the team out. So how can I, you know, pull guys with me? Be like, hey, let's get this extra work in. Can I, it works for me, maybe it works for you. Or you can find your own niche, like, well, what works for you? You know, do it, do extra, do more. We can always do more. And for me, you know, I feel like I can always do more on the field, you know? I don't gotta come out on third, on third down.

• 35:37Speaker 07

  I can stay on the two minute. It's, if you need me, you know, put the ball in my hands, need me to block, I'll do that, any way to win games, and I'm down to do it.

• 35:44Fred Taylor?

  I think it's okay to have, you know, a selfish mindset, in a sense, which will indirectly, you know, help the team. You're gonna always impact the team, but with the state of the position. You know, you have to think about Nick Chubb. Yeah. First and foremost. And then from there, as I mentioned, you're gonna indirectly help the team. Yeah. Whether you decide, if you're, if you're looking at it from this lens or this lens, you're gonna always help the team. But you also have to set yourself up and put yourself in position so that you are able to take care of your family in the long run. Because with football, look at the guys that were drafted in front of you.

• 36:26Fred Taylor?

  Saquon went two, Rashad Penny went 27, and Sony went 31. 31. And all those guys sustained some sort of injury that have affected their career. And you've been blessed and pretty healthy. Yeah. You know, as long as you keep staying the course and continue that mindset, I think you can catch Jim Brown. Yeah. You know, with, with some luck, you know, from a health standpoint. Cause you got all the tools, you got everything, you're, you're made, you're cut from the right cloth. So I'm, I'm, I'm rooting for you to stay healthy. Cause I, I love, enjoy watching you play. But also to add on to what RC was talking about, these fans are crazy here in Cleveland. Back in 1950, when we were doing the sandbox cuts and those drills,

• 37:10Fred Taylor?

  we were in a game here, uh, I'm not sure which stadium, but it was when they allowed bottles in the stadium. And we had a bad call, well, good call for us, bad for you guys. And all of the fans were throwing bottles from the upper deck. The upper deck, glass bottles. Yeah. From that point forward, the NFL, no, only plastic bottles in the stadium. So you got rich tradition here, your fans are gonna always be behind you. You just gotta keep doing your thing to excite them and they're ready to go. I know, sure. I appreciate that.

• 37:42Ryan Clark?

  Chad, you think, like, I know you're from Georgia as well.

• 37:46Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 37:46Ryan Clark?

  Right? You managed to find trouble in Georgia.

• 37:49Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 37:50Ryan Clark?

  I don't, is, is Cedar Town different than where you grew up? Cause I don't know if Nick tries to have an off-field life.

• 37:57Channing Crowder?

  I was, are you a robot? Like, well, you got an old lady, like, but he, RC asked your question earlier and I thought it would get into like hobbies that you have. And you go back to talking about squatting and shit.

• 38:09Channing Crowder?

  You got a woman like, what do you do for fun? Is that fun in Nick's life?

• 38:12Speaker 07

  Man, my fun, I got two dogs, I got German Shepherds. So, I mean, I play with them. I feel like, I don't know, I feel like I put so much time into football, man. Like, I do, I go out, I have friends, I have my boys back home. We step out sometimes, you know, we travel. But, I mean, back with my mom, you know, I gotta work out Monday and I can't really enjoy myself like I want to. But, yeah, I mean, I chill, I go out, man, I have fun, I have a good time. I live a good life.

• 38:36Channing Crowder?

  Let me take you out.

• 38:37Speaker 07

  Let's go.

• 38:37Channing Crowder?

  We're going back to Atlanta.

• 38:39Speaker 07

  Atlanta?

• 38:39Channing Crowder?

  You ever chilling in Atlanta?

• 38:40Speaker 07

  I chill in Atlanta.

• 38:41Channing Crowder?

  Let me go to Atlanta and enjoy ourselves, man.

• 38:43Speaker 07

  I'm down.

• 38:43Ryan Clark?

  Hey, Chan, you know, you don't have a lot of fun when you go, I have a good time.

• 38:49Channing Crowder?

  He was trying to convince himself.

• 38:52Ryan Clark?

  Hey, he thought to himself, do I ever have fun? I don't feel like.

• 38:56Channing Crowder?

  I vacationed in 2017 once.

• 38:58Speaker 07

  If you know somebody I'm cool with, you can ask Rime, you can ask some boys in the locker room like Njoku. Or my boys back home, you can ask about when we step out. Don sent me step out before.

• 39:08Channing Crowder?

  Do you feel as if you have to uphold the persona that you have now? Because a lot of people think you are serious, you know? Do you feel as if you have to uphold that?

• 39:19Speaker 07

  In a way, you know, I'm the whole, you know, Batman, that's my thing. Like, I like Batman, I feel like I gotta uphold that in a way, like Bruce Wayne, like, I wear all black when I go out. Or I don't talk much, you know, you don't really know much about me, like, I'm an enigma or something. But when I'm out with my boys, man, I try to relax, you know, I don't really care.

• 39:37Ryan Clark?

  It's unquestioned to football people, who you are and what you mean to this team, what you've done since being drafted by the Cleveland Browns in 2018. But to the rest of the world, I think it's still not as known because you guys don't win, right? They're not propping you up on that national platform that some of these other running backs get. And you said earlier, you do think you're the best back. What do you feel, though, if any, is your responsibility to put this position in a spot where they can get paid going forward? Where they can be treated differently? How do you feel you can affect that, whether it be by your play or your work?

• 40:21Speaker 07

  It's by my play, for one. Just staying healthy, which I've done a good job of, and just playing at a high level and. Not being replaceable and take care of my work. I feel like I do all those things. But what I could help out more would be being more vocal, which I'm not, I'm not natural. You know, I've always been a quiet guy. People never looked to me to talk and all of a sudden everybody want me to talk, you know?

• 40:45Ryan Clark?

  Us, talking to us.

• 40:48Speaker 07

  Like this, you know what I mean? Like everybody want to interview me now, want me to talk. I want me to be vocal on the field, which I've never done. And so it's a challenge for me. But to get my team better and to get the running back position better, you know, I gotta speak up and I gotta be that, be a vocal guy. I gotta be a leader, you know, for now even the NFL, you know, and for my team, most importantly. But it's a challenge for me just to, just to even do this, just to talk. And I don't let people in. But I think for Cleveland and for running backs, I gotta, I gotta do a better job of talking more.

• 41:18Ryan Clark?

  I mean, and, and not letting people in isn't a bad thing.

• 41:21Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 41:21Ryan Clark?

  Like I'm, I'm in no way saying that, you know, the way that you've conducted yourself has hurt you because it hasn't, because your job is to run the football and you do that as well as anybody in the world. But when you think about the stardom, when you think about the way we do see the Saquon Barkleys, even though he's in New York, anybody in Cleveland who's ever watched you play could say, nah, Nick Chubb is the guy. Nick Chubb is someone who could be out in the front of it. What is it going to take to get this team elevated to that point? Not just the work. How does the, how do the 2023 Cleveland Browns compete to win the AFC North and become a playoff team?

• 42:05Speaker 07

  If I knew the answer, yeah, we just do it. But I think, man, just us, us coming together. You know, it's been, it's been seasons where we've had so much talent and we've, we'll win like five or six games. And I think, you know, I think about that at nighttime all the time. I think about, I think back to when I was at Georgia, my junior year with Coach Mark, first year, and we were bad. We were like horrible. Like we lost to like Tech, Vanderbilt. It was, it was a bad year. But literally that next year, we're in a national championship. And so I always think back to like, what was the biggest difference to get us from? Being a bad team till the next year going all the way.

• 42:46Speaker 07

  When I I stay up at night thinking about it like I'm I really stay up thinking about what the difference was and what I can think of is just. Our team was. Player led. Our team was player led like we didn't. We didn't allow we had a standard. And us as players, we held everybody to that standard like. One person not doing something right. We all jumped on him if one guy is not doing something right. We all jumped on him, it's contagious and then the whole team jumps on him. And then we're all one. And practice was so competitive back in Georgia like that senior year, man. If if if it's a drill when it's um. It's like. No defense, we just running routes, never saw it drop.

• 43:28Speaker 07

  And team period, we had run versus run, um, defense versus offense, ones versus ones. We had Ruck Horn Smith over there. I mean, we go and edit like we are crazy like pads popping like it's competitive, high level. And we were just a team, man, we we love to practice high intensity. We came together, we knew what took the win and we we never faltered, we never like. We never looked back and we just kept going forward. I think I think us. I think we have ways to go till we get there. I think we need to come together more as a team. I think. I need to be a be a better leader like vocally and. I think we all got to just, you know, find our standard, which we have. But we got to stick to it and stay there and I think there's no ceiling to where we can go.

• 44:08Ryan Clark?

  So this is my last thing. I watched a clip of you recently at practice. And maybe it was the drill, maybe it was y'all was doing a four minute drill, then y'all were supposed to be running the ball. Where you break it and you slide before the end zone. Now you've done this in the game as well and the whole world, including myself goes, ah, that makes sense. That's Nick Chubb. He actually doesn't care about the stat. He doesn't care about touchdown, he doesn't care about the extra yardage. This is who he's shown himself to be. When you do something like that and you actually practice it and you do hear all the people. That have an opportunity to analyze you or give their opinion on you go. It makes sense because he is such an unselfish. Football player. Is that something that you take pride in?

• 44:53Speaker 07

  I do. I'm a team player. Everything I do. Like when I'm squatting, when I'm working out, running, like, only thing on my mind is my team. My team in Cleveland, like, that's the only thing I care about. I'm doing that for everyone around me, just so I can be in the best shape for when I come back, so we can win games, I can do my part. But I do take pride in it, but, you know, last year, it came back to bite me because I didn't go down versus the Jets. And I scored, we were like two touchdowns, a minute left, and they come back and win. You know, so, but yeah, that was a four-minute drill yesterday, well, two days ago.

• 45:23Channing Crowder?

  Well, bruh, just as your homeboy now, I say, you taking money out your pocket, though. As quiet as you are, not going out, like Freddie said, you one of the best backs in the league, you're one of the most explosive offensive players in the world at football. You should be on way more commercials, you should have way more crap, but, like you said. Baker had all the commercials. See? Like, you ever think about, like you say, I thought of it because R C said how unselfish you are, but can't you be a little selfish with your money?

• 45:52Speaker 07

  And I could be, you know, I've turned down national commercial deals before, and I just not me, man. I'm just a small-town kid, I don't, I don't care about it.

• 45:59Channing Crowder?

  You're gonna check.

• 46:00Speaker 07

  I get the check, but I mean, at the end of the day, like, that's just not who I am, you know? I'm gonna stick to who I am over anything.

• 46:06Fred Taylor?

  You know, I wish, um, man, there's so many similarities, just, um, just hearing you speak, you know, your demeanor, the entire piece, where you are in your career, that I wish you can kind of go back, or I can paint a picture for you. The person I was as a player, I turned down opportunities. That later in my career, I, I learned that it wasn't always about the money. It was just more so about just being available and, and having people understand that they can depend on you when they make that call. Because the expectations are, we believe in you as a brand, which is what you are. So they want to reward you for that, and you have to reward yourself by taking advantage of it.

• 46:48Fred Taylor?

  No, you might not always feel like it, but in terms of setting yourself up for post-career, trust me, you're gonna look back and say, man, I wish I had done a few more of those opportunities, because it's in you. Like, you're very articulate. You go out there, you know, R C says you got your thirst trap tape. Like, people know you're a handsome, young man, so those opportunities are gonna be there for you. Uh, and I just wanted to just touch on that. But, uh, quickly, can you recall a pivotal moment, or experience, or a person of influence that have, you know, helped you or led you to be the successful person you are now?

• 47:25Speaker 07

  I would start with a moment. The moment is probably when I hurt my knee. I was in a very dark place back then, just not knowing if I was ever gonna play again, or be the same caliber player I was before. So I went through a lot, you know. That changed my career because I realized you can't take it for granted. And from that day on, I just, you know, I worked even harder. But a person is probably just my mom. My mom probably the strongest person I know. She raised three kids on her own and she worked so many jobs and I just remember her having like crazy jobs. She was like a cook in the hospital. She was working at the Atlanta Dome, like in the concession stands, to make sure that me and my brothers and sisters had everything we wanted and needed. And I think just her working as hard as she did, you know.

• 48:12Speaker 07

  Now, now I want to work as hard as I can and pay her back for all the good things she did for us.

• 48:16Fred Taylor?

  I love you.

• 48:16Ryan Clark?

  Well, man, you, we're all big fans. It's hard for me to be vocal about my fandom based on where I played football in Pittsburgh. But I do, man. And the biggest compliment you can ever give offensive players, I felt that way about Fred as well, is like, I'd go to war with that dude. If I had that guy on my team, I feel like I can win. And I think every Cleveland Brown, every Cleveland Brown fan feels that way about you. Personality, whatever it is, man. When, when the lights are on, bro, you always show up. And that's what important, bro. We wish you the best of luck. I mean, there's two weeks this year you can sit out, you play Pittsburgh. You don't have to be out there.

• 48:55Ryan Clark?

  You know, you figure 15 weeks, you'll still rush for like 13, 1400, you know, make the Pro Bowl. But nah, man, best of luck this year, brother. Thank you for your time.

• 49:03Speaker 07

  Appreciate y'all's time, bro.

• 49:04Ryan Clark?

  Hey, that Joe Goo dude too, he ball be high and tight. He got the, he dressed like the uniform, man. It's a teach tape, dawg. It is a teach tape, dawg. Hey, when you, when you get to college though, and you got Keith there, Todd, you deal with Sony, there was never a time where you was like, hold on, man, I might not play.

• 49:21Speaker 07

  I did think that. I thought I was gonna rest on it. I did, yeah.

• 49:24Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 49:24Speaker 07

  Because you know, Todd, Todd's Todd. Keith was actually, he had like same years Todd. But Keith got hurt. And it's only like five star. He was like starting ahead of me, I guess because of that reason. Yeah, I was forced to.

• 49:35Fred Taylor?

  It's kind of like the Frank Gore story. Frank going to Miami behind all those guys and he sort of came out to be the best one in the group and he played the longest, all that different stuff. It's a good story.

• 50:12Speaker 10

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