Browns RB Chubb makes full circle comeback, returns to Pittsburgh for first time since knee injury

CLEVELAND (AP) — With every game, every carry, Nick Chubb puts a little distance between himself and a moment that changed him.

On Sunday, he'll return to where it happened. The full circle.

More than a year since the Cleveland running back's left knee was obliterated on a trap play near the goal line in Pittsburgh, Chubb will be back in Acrisure Stadium for the first time since suffering an injury that could have ended his career.

Reserved and reticent, Chubb rarely shows emotion, let alone open up about his feelings during interview sessions. However, he said this week that going back to the Steelers' home field had extra significance.

“It’s a divisional game, so for me that’s enough for me to get excited about, but I’d be lying if I said I haven’t thought about it, going back to that place where it happened last year,” he said on a Zoom call. "But besides that, I’m always excited to play the Steelers.”

In Week 2 last season, Chubb's knee and career nearly collapsed at the same time.

On what began as a routine inside handoff, Chubb was cutting when his left knee was hit from the side on a low tackle by Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick. The damage was extensive: torn ligaments, meniscus and medial capsule tears.

After undergoing two surgeries, Chubb, who injured the same knee in college at Georgia, attacked his rehab and returned to Cleveland's lineup in Week 7. He scored a touchdown in his first game back against Cincinnati on Oct. 20.

Then, two weeks ago, Chubb played against the Steelers for the first time in what became almost storybook.

With falling snow providing a scenic backdrop, Chubb ran inside on a play that looked eerily like the one on which he got hurt, darting two yards for his second TD with 57 seconds left to give the Browns a 24-19 win.

Chubb didn't speak to reporters after the game, perhaps downplaying his comeback so as not to steal the spotlight after the rivalry win.

Whatever the case, his teammates said the performance lifted Chubb and everyone around him.

“I know it means a lot to him. He won’t say it, but it’s true,” defensive end Myles Garrett said. "I’ll say it, because at this time last year we were sick to our stomachs and it hurt to have his family hurting and have to see that.

"For him to come back and be pivotal in this game just speaks to the kind of resilience and the man that he is, and we absolutely love him.”

Chubb feels that warmth everywhere he goes in Cleveland. He's the team's most popular player, his status reflected in the thousands of No. 24 jerseys in the stands each week and the resounding chants of “Chubb! Chubb!” before and after every rush.

He even heard them last year in Pittsburgh while being driven off on a cart following his devastating injury.

And as he gets ready to walk back on to that field, Chubb is overwhelmed by thanks.

“Just going back there and knowing how it was last year, last time I played there, everything that happened and just being grateful that I’m able to run and play football again and move around,” he said. “And I think more just the gratitude aspect of me being back there and being healthy.”

Chubb's inspiring comeback has given the Browns something to embrace in an otherwise disappointing season.

“Nick is the true definition of being a Cleveland Brown,” wide receiver Elijah Moore said. "The city embraces him, and even when I first got traded over here, that’s the first player that I thought of when I thought of the team.

“So to have him back and to respond the way that he’s responding has been nothing but super motivating to all the players. Just a high level of respect. We already had that towards him, but I guess it just raised a whole another bar.”

Chubb turns 29 later this month. The four-time Pro Bowler hasn't had the same burst that made him so dangerous before getting hurt 14 months ago. However, that had to be expected since his offseason priority was healing.

He's rushed for just 243 yards (a 3.0 yard per carry average) and three TDs in six games, and Chubb hasn't been able to break into the secondary on one of those long scoring runs that thrill Browns fans.

Not yet. Maybe not again.

Chubb knows better than anyone that he's not quite himself, and attributed some of that to inactivity.

“I think it’s just time, the rust and just not playing football for a while,” he said. “Maybe that’s the biggest thing.”

So how close is he to being all the way back?

“I have no idea,” he said. “When it happens, you’ll see it.”

NOTES: CB Denzel Ward was named the team's nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. Ward is having his best season on the field, and off it he has supported an effort to have external defibrillators in schools and recreation centers in Ohio. Ward began a foundation years ago in honor of his father, Paul, who died after going into cardiac arrest while working out. ... LT Jedrick Wills Kr. (knee), WR Cedric Tillman (concussion) and DT Maurice Hurst II (ankle) did not practice.

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Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb (24) celebrates his touchdown with quarterback Jameis Winston (5) and tight end Blake Whiteheart (86) in the second half of an NFL football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb (24) carries for a touchdown in the second half of an NFL football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb (24) carries for a touchdown in the second half of an NFL football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb (24) carries for a touchdown in the second half of an NFL football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb (24) rushes during the first half of an NFL football game against the Denver Broncos, Monday, Dec. 2, 2024, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

In the days since a fragile ceasefire took hold in the Gaza Strip, Israel has launched a major military operation in the occupied West Bank and suspected Jewish settlers have rampaged through two Palestinian towns.

The violence comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces domestic pressure from his far-right allies after agreeing to the truce and hostage-prisoner exchange with the Hamas militant group. U.S. President Donald Trump has, meanwhile, rescinded the Biden administration's sanctions against Israelis accused of violence in the territory.

It's a volatile mix that could undermine the ceasefire, which is set to last for at least six weeks and bring about the release of dozens of hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, most of whom will be released into the West Bank.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, and Palestinians want all three territories for their future state. Escalations in one area frequently spill over, raising further concerns that the second and far more difficult phase of the Gaza ceasefire — which has yet to be negotiated — may never come.

Dozens of masked men rampaged through two Palestinian villages in the northern West Bank late Monday, hurling stones and setting cars and property ablaze, according to local Palestinian officials. The Red Crescent emergency service said 12 people were beaten and wounded.

Israeli forces, meanwhile, carried out a raid elsewhere in the West Bank that the military said was in response to the hurling of firebombs at Israeli vehicles. It said several suspects were detained for questioning, and a video circulating online appeared to show dozens being marched through the streets.

On Tuesday, the Israeli military launched another major operation, this time in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, where its forces have regularly clashed with Palestinian militants in recent years, even before Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip triggered the war there.

At least nine Palestinians were killed on Tuesday, including a 16-year-old, and 40 were wounded, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. The military said its forces carried out airstrikes and dismantled roadside bombs and “hit” 10 militants — though it was not clear what that meant.

Palestinian residents have reported a major increase in Israeli checkpoints and delays across the territory.

Israel, meanwhile, says threats from the West Bank against its citizens are on the rise. Earlier this month, Palestinian gunmen opened fire on motorists there, killing three Israelis, including two women in their 70s. That attack fueled calls from settler leaders for a crackdown in the territory.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz cast the Jenin operation as part of Israel's larger struggle against Iran and its militant allies across the region, saying “we will strike the octopus' arms until they snap.”

The Palestinians view such operations and the expansion of settlements as ways of cementing Israeli control over the territory, where 3 million Palestinians live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority administering cities and towns.

Prominent human rights groups call it a form of apartheid since the over 500,000 Jewish settlers in the territory have all the rights conferred by Israeli citizenship. Israel rejects those allegations.

Netanyahu has been struggling to quell a rebellion by his ultranationalist coalition partners since agreeing to the ceasefire. The agreement requires Israeli forces to withdraw from most of Gaza and release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners — including militants convicted of murder — in exchange for hostages abducted in the Oct. 7 attack.

One coalition partner, Itamar Ben-Gvir, resigned in protest the day the ceasefire went into effect. Another, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, has threatened to bolt if Israel does not resume the war after the first phase of the ceasefire is slated to end in early March.

They want Israel to annex the West Bank and to rebuild settlements in Gaza while encouraging what they refer to as the voluntary migration of large numbers of Palestinians.

Netanyahu still has a parliamentary majority after Ben-Gvir's departure, but the loss of Smotrich — who is also the de facto governor of the West Bank — would severely weaken his coalition and likely lead to early elections.

That could spell the end of Netanyahu's nearly unbroken 16 years in power, leaving him even more exposed to longstanding corruption charges and an expected public inquiry into Israel's failure to prevent the Oct. 7 attack.

Trump's return to the White House offers Netanyahu a potential lifeline.

The newly sworn-in president, who lent unprecedented support to Israel during his previous term, has surrounded himself with aides who support Israeli settlement. Some support the settlers' claim to a biblical right to the West Bank because of the Jewish kingdoms that existed there in antiquity.

The international community overwhelmingly considers settlements illegal.

Among the flurry of executive orders Trump signed on his first day back in office was one rescinding the Biden administration's sanctions on settlers and Jewish extremists accused of violence against Palestinians.

The sanctions — which had little effect — were one of the few concrete steps the Biden administration took in opposition to the close U.S. ally, even as it provided billions of dollars in military support for Israel's campaign in Gaza, among the deadliest and most destructive in decades.

Trump claimed credit for helping to get the Gaza ceasefire agreement across the finish line in the final days of the Biden presidency.

But this week, Trump said he was “not confident” it would hold and signaled he would give Israel a free hand in Gaza, saying: “It's not our war, it's their war.”

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

ADDS THE WORD SUSPECTED - A Palestinian youth sifts through the aftermath of an attack by suspected Israeli settlers in the West Bank village of Jinsafut, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Palestinians look at Israeli military vehicles guard a road where a military bulldozer operates in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Medics evacuate a wounded man during an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed).

Israeli army vehicles are seen during a military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed).

Medics evacuate a wounded man during an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed).

Israeli army vehicles are seen during a military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed).