Devin Bush's Unique Journey From One Side Of Browns, Steelers Rivalry To The Other

Exclusively 67 have played an outing for both Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers. Devin Bush drafted by Pittsburgh as the first-round pick looking forward to joining the 68th list of players that have worn both the brown and black jerseys as the tense AFC north rivals go head to head.

“Just being from the other side, it’s literally the same thing,” Bush said early on at Browns training camp. And all I heard was ‘Brownies’. . . It’s just the rivalry; it has always been that way, it has always been intense It is intense in terms of physicality There is way more planning, more discussion of the game.

Bush will feel the other side of the rivalry in 2024. The 26-year-old joined the Browns on the eve of the current season after the end of the previous campaign with the Seattle Seahawks .

Bush got some solace in an NFC North return this offseason. Despite his early development in Pittsburgh, Cleveland is hardly foreign ground for him, given that his father once performed for the Browns during 2001 to 2002.

Bush too was candid when he said: “It’s cool, it’s funny,” of the irony. “It’s different from when he played, obviously, it is different for me, but what I find amusing is that, you know, everything’s happened to me and it was against his team, and now I am just here… Quite amusing. ”

Bush was the 10th overall pick by the Steelers out of Michigan and quickly proved how effective he could be as a rangey linebacker in the middle of that defense. Browns fans thought, based on him finishing third in AP Rookie of the Year, Bush was going to be the next Steelers defender to give them fits for years to come.

Then came a brutal ACL tear only in the fifth game, in the 2020 season against – the Browns it turned out. Coffee Bush never got back to his rookie form even after surgeries and strenuous efforts at the rehab. And that left Pittsburgh disinclined to exercise the fifth-year option on his rookie contract. One can hardly exaggerate the extent to which the injury altered the course of Bush’s career and his life.

One of those things where u can’t be guided through it, he said five years later in an interview. ‘It is more like a routine, you wake up and there are things to do,’ in other words, ‘It is just like living a normal life. ’ . . . There's no special therapy. There's no special trick. There's no speech. There is no one to come and rescue you but yourself and what you are willing to do there to get back to the game.

“I was certainly glad to be able to look back at it now because it really helped me to develop a lot as a person and as a player. ”

Bush scarred Pittsburgh in ways more than one before leaving for Texas. The parting way with the Steelers because of the injury was a wake up from the reality that football is a business.

That of course proved to be yet another enlightenment for him.

Bush was not an innocent in the crisis and he knew it, he admits, “I would say I learned the business right then and there. ” ‘It took me some time to recover, but through that I got to learn lots of things about how the businesses operated, what transpired , the consequences of certain events. Thus, I got to understand a lot of things about the business operations. Besides, I also got to learn manner in which I could effectively operate within the business environment.

All that concerning side of football was a totally different phase that Bush was yet to encounter. As with many young talents, the high emotions of college football ‘can fool you,’ the 26-year-old said. Players buy into this notion of playing for ‘the love of the game’ and laying down their welfare for titles and team-mates. Those Hollywood themes are cute when a team is able to terminate your services at a moment’s notice and what you’ve been receiving in checks stops forthwith.

Unfortunately, Bush had to realise that the hard way and more than anything, he’s just happy to still be able to play football. Wow, to have it be with a fact a franchise he knows well is a bonus , as far as I am concerned.

“So far I love it. I love being here,” he said. “I mean I know pretty much everybody on that team, I’m super familiar with this team and the way things run here right now, I’m just taking stride for stride as far as it goes and I’m just enjoying myself. ”

Bush was only three years old when his dad first embarked on a brief association with Cleveland in 2001. Apparently, the Michigan product can hardly recall much from the two-years stint his old man had with the franchise. The Bush with the Browns jersey though can be seen in some of the family photos cumming across. A full circle, he now wearing a Browns jersey with his name on it.

Asked about his father’s reaction about him joining his former team, Bush said, “He just happy that I’m still playing”. It is different for the league if it is college it would have been different but for the league it is like yeah you will be there one year deal you will be there you might be out so just happy that I am still playing and I am still enjoying the game. "

The father son duo now get to share something in common of playing for the browns which is quite the reverse heel turn for the younger bush. He knows what the switch of sides of the bitter rival means. He still can recall the playoff match where Cleveland defeated the Steelers in January 2020. Still, he, and his former teammates were taken aback by the 48-37 defeat – the first Browns playoff victory since they rejoined in 1999.

He said: ‘It was like ‘did that really just happen?’ kind of thing’ That was the wild card game and in the first play the snap was over [Ben Roethlisberger] head and after that you know it, it was a disaster. It was one of those like ‘yeah, did that really just happen to us’ moments. "

Operating on a one-year contract, Bush is not aware of what is in store for his future beyond the 2024 season. However long his time in Cleveland lasts Bush hopes to contribute to his new team what he could not for the Browns – more memorable moments in the form of that aspect – at the expense , of course , of the team he used to play for .

“I think night games in Cleveland are for sure,” he said. “I think that’s probably one of the best times to play in Cleveland honestly,” he said wistfully, “Man, I’m just looking forward to being back in the AFC North man, knock on wood. “I went out to the NFC West and it was a whole different ball of wax, a whole different style and that wasn’t something I was familiar with. ”