The one factor extra painful than seeing your group lose a championship is saying goodbye to your favourite athlete. Time comes for us all, however there’s one thing uniquely heartbreaking in the case of seeing an athlete you’re keen on go away your group.
It’s not simply the participant leaving, however the ache of unrealized potential. Oftentimes it’s saddled with the missed championships, unrealized goals, and reminiscences of a time whenever you although you’d see that participant hoisting a trophy in your group’s colours.
Browns followers are going via that on Friday with the information working again Nick Chubb doubtless gained’t be returning in 2025. We determined to take a seat down, entry our emotions, and return to the athletes who left our groups and broke us within the course of.
Nick Chubb: Cleveland Browns
By Jared Mueller, Dawgs By Nature
To be clear, Chubb has not formally left the Browns, however GM Andrew Berry made it clear he’s unlikely to be again. Cleveland followers have been dismayed all offseason about the potential for Chubb shifting on. Together with Corridor of Famer Joe Thomas, Chubb looks like the right consultant of how the individuals of the Metropolis of Cleveland see themselves.
And, not like most Browns gamers since The Return in 1999, Chubb (like Thomas) was nice for a variety of years.
5 straight seasons with a yards per carry common of 5.0 or larger. 4 straight years of over 1,000 yards speeding on a group that always struggled to win video games and hasn’t had a star quarterback since Bernie Kosar. Then, Minkah Fitzpatrick of the rival Pittsburgh Steelers hit Chubb’s knee in Week 2 of the 2023 and the whole lot went downhill from there.
A damaged foot in 2024 ended his season early, however there have been indicators that Chubb wasn’t the identical again that he was once. Didn’t and doesn’t matter to me or the followers of the Browns. Chubb felt our ardour and love for him as he recovered from his main knee accidents in 2023:
Chubb’s love for the Batman franchise not solely impressed his return; he referred to as his rehab plan “The Bat Information,” but in addition impressed this superb hype video about his return:
To not have the NFL’s Batman representing the town and not attending to cheer on Nicholas Jamaal Chubb on Sundays is heartbreaking. For Browns followers, grief round Chubb’s looming departure might be felt for a protracted, very long time.
Buffalo Payments: Thurman Thomas, Bruce Smith, and Andre Reed
By Matt Warren, Buffalo Rumblings
There are a variety of names I might placed on this record going again to Jim Kelly’s retirement within the mid-90s, however the mixed intestine punch of dropping all three of those Corridor of Famers on the very same day was one thing in one other stratosphere. They have been the final three remaining gamers from the Payments’ Tremendous Bowl groups.
February 10, 2000.
Maybe the peak of 24-hour cable sports activities information noticed the Buffalo Payments make a enterprise determination that wasn’t essentially flawed, however harm nonetheless. We knew Reed was sad and leaving, however Smith and Thomas have been surprises. In accordance with Thomas, he discovered on the ESPN information ticker, not from the group. When Smith heard Reed and Thomas have been out, he wouldn’t comply with take a pay minimize.
That was additionally a reasonably ominous offseason in Payments historical past. In January, the Payments misplaced the “Music Metropolis Miracle” in what turned out to be these Corridor of Famers’ final recreation with the Payments, and the group didn’t return to the playoffs for 17 straight seasons. We didn’t understand it on the time, but it surely was simply the beginning of our despair.
Carolina Panthers: Luke Kuechly
By James Dator, SB Nation.com
I’ve by no means seen a participant in my life like Luke Kuechly, and sure — that is coming from somebody who noticed Cam Newton win an MVP award.
See, the factor about Newton and Kuechly is that they have been the yin and yang of Panthers soccer. On one facet you had Cam, chiseled out of granite to be a bodily specimen not like something we’ve seen on the quarterback place earlier than, however whose mechanics and determination making have been suspect. Then there was Luke, branded as undersized, too small to play linebacker, however with soccer IQ that would fill a stadium. They shared coronary heart and a need to win, and it breaks me each time I take into consideration the very fact Kuechly won’t ever have a Tremendous Bowl ring.
When information broke that Kuechly was retiring from the NFL at age 28 it was a intestine punch so visceral I keep in mind doubling over as I learn the tweet. Right here was a participant so all-consuming, so dominant that he was a seven-time Professional Bowler and five-time All Professional regardless of solely taking part in eight seasons within the NFL. He by no means had fewer than 100 tackles in a season, he posted 75 tackles for a loss, recorded 18 interceptions — a staggering quantity for a linebacker.
Each second he was concerned in, each sort out, each celebration — Financial institution of America Stadium in Charlotte would rattle with a deep, throaty “LUUUUUUUKE” cheer. Kuechly wasn’t only a phenomenal participant, however a lesson for everybody who’s ever been advised they have been too small, or bodily missing to do one thing, however succeeded anyway.
In the end I don’t blame him for quitting soccer. The truth is, I applaud him for it. Concussions crept up and the always-intelligent Kuechly determined that his life was about greater than soccer. He left the sport for his well being, for his spouse, for his younger kids — and I’ll by no means, ever hate on him for that.
I nonetheless want we might have basked in his brilliance for just a bit bit longer.
Boston Purple Sox: Wade Boggs
By Mark Schofield, SB Nation.com
Of all of the groups, he went to the freakin’ New York Yankees.
Each sports activities fan has their transformative 12 months, the one which turns them into followers of a group or groups for all times. For me, 1986 was that 12 months. Not solely did the calendar 12 months start with the New England Patriots making a dream run to Tremendous Bowl XX, however the Boston Celtics gained one other title that summer season, knocking off the Houston Rockets 4 video games to 2 within the NBA Finals, and the Boston Bruins made one other run within the playoffs as properly.
However for me, the Boston Purple Sox have been my old flame.
My grandfather acquired season tickets shortly after returning house from World Conflict II, and people have been in our household till the Nineties. However that 1986 group solidified a life-long ardour for the Purple Sox in me, and I used to be there for Recreation 2 of the ALCS when Bruce Hurst steadied the ship, going the space in a 9-2 win to even the collection at 1-1 in opposition to the California Angels. Sure the Angels had a shortstop that shared my final identify, Dick Schofield, however the Purple Sox had my coronary heart.
I cherished that total group, however definitely carved out a spot for Wade Boggs. For a franchise related to among the greatest hitters within the historical past of the game, Ted Williams amongst them, Boggs was additionally on that record. Whereas he was a left-handed hitter and I swung from the opposite facet of the plate, I attempted to emulate him in my very own baseball journey, from being affected person on the plate — Boggs was infamous for taking the primary pitch of every at-bat — all the way down to the little round movement he would make with the bat as he waited for every pitch:
He was additionally superstitious as hell, from consuming rooster earlier than each recreation to waking up on the similar time every morning. He additionally as soon as instructed the Purple Sox public deal with announcer to by no means say his quantity, after Boggs broke out of a hunch in a recreation the place the announcer forgot to incorporate his uniform quantity.
The way in which that season ended in opposition to the New York Mets crushed me, and the picture of Boggs crying on the bench haunts me to at the present time:
Nevertheless …
One thing else broke me years later. The 1992 season noticed Boggs publish a batting common of simply .259, the primary time in his legendary profession he got here in below .300. It got here on the absolute worst time, as Boggs was set to hit free company.
In fact, the Yankees pounced. In fact they did.
Seeing Boggs in pinstripes was painful sufficient, but it surely didn’t finish there. Boggs and the Yankees went on to win a World Collection collectively, and he rode round Yankee Stadium on a horse, and I hated all of it.
I nonetheless do, a long time later.
San Francisco 49ers: Patrick Willis
By David Fucillo, SB Nation
Skilled athletes come and go. It all the time hits you when a favourite leaves your group, however the hardest for me was when Patrick Willis needed to retire. He handled a wide range of accidents throughout his profession, notably taking part in with a forged on one hand a number of instances throughout his faculty and professional careers. However the accidents proved an excessive amount of. After six straight All Professional nods and 7 straight Professional Bowls to start out his profession, Willis needed to retire after the 2014 season as a consequence of accidents.
I used to be disillusioned within the information, however I wasn’t prepared for the press convention. I really had a pair tears in my eyes once I watched his retirement press convention. I’ve had quite a few favourite gamers throughout sports activities in my profession, however this may need revealed that Willis was the favourite of all of them. To have his profession minimize brief when he was nonetheless among the best within the recreation added to it, and you would see how a lot it harm him to should make the announcement. He’s since been inducted into the Corridor of Fame, but it surely doesn’t make that press convention any simpler to observe.
Who’re the athletes you most remorse leaving your group?