Josh Cribbs shares personal stories, Browns views at Hall of Fame Luncheon Club
CANTON − Josh Cribbs came to the Pro Football Hall of Fame Monday as a speaker.
If the criteria were playing hard, he would be in as a player.
The Cribbs everyone loved was in full force at the Hall of Fame Luncheon Club.
He ditched the podium and prowled a stage.
His spontaneity, humor and energy had the affect of a quarterback — his position for four seasons at Kent State — grabbing a locker room's undivided attention.
He looked fit enough to play. He has come to grips with being 40.
His knees and back ache. When he goes upstairs to bed one of his kids drops a standing joke: "Need some help, old man?"
He played eight years for the Browns. He made the 2000s NFL All-Decade as the kick returner.
He almost never signaled fair catch as a punt returner. He was a receiver and wildcat quarterback and might have been something as a running back.
Everyone in the house Monday remembered that Cribbs.
He was in no hurry to leave as he talked well past standard time, telling stories about the Cribbs few people knew.
His parents were Marines. His dad fought in Vietnam; his mom didn't see combat, but she outranked Cribbs' dad.
"You should hear them talk about that," he said.
Cribbs ranked his favorite sports from when he grew up in Washington, D.C.; in order, baseball, football, swimming, basketball and track.
He pitched, caught, played shortstop and was annoyed by a classmate who got a $15,000 signing bonus from the Angels, right out of high school.
"I was a better baseball player than him," Cribbs said.
He chose Kent State because the Golden Flashes had excellent baseball and he assumed he would play two sports. He started at quarterback as a true freshman, basically ending his baseball career.
Cribbs was 19 when he married his pregnant girlfriend. He drew applause Monday when he noted they been married 21 years.
In four years at Kent State, he passed for 7,169 yards and ran for 3,670 on teams that went 6-5, 3-9, 5-7 and 5-6.
Cribbs recalled getting knocked out at a Kent State practice by teammate James Harrison, who ignored a "hands off quarterbacks" rule.
One time in a Browns-Steelers game, a Harrison hit left Cribbs with a concussion.
"Afterward James's mother smacked him in the head," Cribbs said. "She hit him hard. She said, 'That's your quarterback.'"
… even though Cribbs wasn't a quarterback any more.
"I got a $5,000 signing bonus with the Browns as an undrafted rookie," Cribbs said. "A coach made it sound like he was taking it out of his own pocket."
That same year Braylon Edwards came to Cleveland as a No. 3 overall draft pick.
Cribbs recalls "a certain player" being rude to coaches.
"He would say '18.5' and keep walking," Cribbs said. "His signing bonus was $18.5 million."
Cribbs recalls being amidst 30 training camp hopefuls when head coach Romeo Crennel said, "Two of you will make the team."
"I was like the guy from Dumb and Dumber," Cribbs said. "So you're saying there's a chance."
One could say he was lucky not to get cut after he fumbled a kick return on opening day.
The Browns are lucky they didn't cut him. He became one of the few expansion-era bright spots.
He groaned about the chronic losing and acknowledged groans bouncing back from the audience.
"I can see I'm preaching to the choir," he said.
He admits he was a fool at first about money and fame. He was making $8,000 a week after taxes, spending big, hitting the clubs and buying rounds.
"Dennis Northcutt told me, 'You know you only get paid during football season,'" Cribbs said, noting he eventually came to his senses with family and finances.
Cribbs had negative experiences with some coaches.
"One time, a coach said, 'I'm going to cut you before they cut me. I've got kids in college.' I thought … that must make you a big man."
He disliked insults that were unaccompanied by coaching.
He said teammate Joe Jurevicius, who played in Super Bowls elsewhere, told him it wasn't like that on other teams.
"Some of it went with the frustration of losing," Cribbs said.
He resolved to do what he could.
"Those of you who are Browns fans, thank you," he said. "You sustained me."
Cribbs' final season in Cleveland was 2012. He played with the Jets in 2013 and the Colts in 2014.
In his last game, Colts vs Patriots in the AFC finals, he muffed a punt.
It led to a touchdown. Did it even matter? The Colts lost 45-7.
It got to Cribbs.
"I was depressed for two years," he said. "I went to a dark place."
He said his wife snapped him out of it.
In 2018, he became a Browns special teams intern.
"Basically they would bring people by my cubicle to say hello to visitors to the building," he said.
It wasn't a real coaching job. He felt like "a mascot."
He's happier now, just being a Browns fan.
He caught Sunday's win over the Steelers from home. He was so into it that he kept turning on and shutting off the TV.
"I'm excited about this team," he said. "I'm devastated about this team. I'm joyful about this team. I'm broken about this team.
"You get it? I'm a Browns fan."
Cribbs is afraid Dorian Thompson-Robinson is too young and newly signed Joe Flacco is too old.
He said Kevin Stefanski is "a better head coach than he is a play caller."
He loves that Sunday's nail-biter against Pittsburgh turned into a 13-10 win.
He made light of a Steelers fan in Monday's crowd.
"I can't believe you let him in here," said Cribbs, doing nothing to harm his popularity.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Josh Cribbs talks Browns-Steelers, more at Hall of Fame Luncheon Club
