After 12 seasons and 178 starts, Cleveland Browns offensive lineman Joel Bitonio announced that he was retiring from the NFL last week. For many, it wasn’t a big surprise, although certain fans never wrote off the idea of him going to another team.
Now Bitonio has come forward and talked about his thought process behind retiring. According to him, there was never a chance of him playing for a different franchise.
He was either going to come back to the Browns, or hang up his jersey for good.
“You look across the league, and if you would’ve told me 10 years ago Von Miller wouldn’t be a Bronco for life, or Tom Brady wouldn’t be a Patriot for life, or Aaron Rodgers wouldn’t be a Packer, those are guys that you’re like, ‘No, these are their teams.’ For me, once I got to that point, I was just like, ‘This is my team. This is who I am. I just can’t do it.’ You say you want to chase a Super Bowl. Did anybody think the Seahawks were winning the Super Bowl last year? It’s not that easy, right? You don’t get to pick and choose which team you want to go to. We took our time to announce [my retirement], but that whole time, I was just, ‘There’s no chance that I’m going to go somewhere else and make this decision.’ It was always the Browns or nothing for me,” Bitonio said.
No one will ever question Bitonio’s loyalty, and it’s one of the main reasons why he will be remembered by Browns fans for a very long time. He played a central role for the team, and many people viewed him as the beating heart of the roster.
Certain people speculated about how tough it must have been for Bitonio to stick with the Browns for his whole career while missing out on the chance to play for a championship. As he grew older and the window for a ring seemed to get smaller, he could have contemplated leaving for a squad that would give him a better chance.
He talked about that in the interview, but said it didn’t play into his plans at all. Although he would have loved to become a champion, his commitment and dedication to the Browns meant more than anything. It’s not often that a player stays with one team for an entire career, but Bitonio truly loved the people he worked for and played with.
Comments like this one will only improve his standing in the Browns’ history, and Bitonio was already well-respected for his reliability, but his loyalty is even more impressive.
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