Joel Bitonio Retires as a ‘Cleveland Brown for Life’ After 12 Seasons and 7 Pro Bowls
Joel Bitonio spent 12 seasons in Cleveland. He started 178 games. He never wore another uniform. On Tuesday, he hung it up the way every great offensive lineman dreams of doing. On his own terms, in the same colors he started in.
The seven-time Pro Bowl guard announced his retirement Tuesday after a career spent entirely with the Browns. He was 34. His 178 starts are the most by any Browns player since the franchise returned to Cleveland in 1999.
“Truthfully, as time passed and my career kept going, there was never a point where I could envision myself in a different uniform,” Bitonio wrote in his retirement note. That kind of loyalty is increasingly rare in a league where guys change teams every two years.
Cleveland drafted Bitonio with the 35th overall pick in the 2014 draft out of Nevada. He started 13 games as a rookie. Then he kept starting for the next 11 seasons. Two first-team All-Pro selections. Three second-team All-Pro nods. Seven Pro Bowls. He is the best offensive lineman the Browns have produced in the modern era.
What he was not is a household name outside of Cleveland. Offensive guards rarely become national stars. The position does not produce highlights. The work happens in the trenches where the cameras do not linger. Bitonio was content with that. He showed up, played at an All-Pro level, and went home to his family.
The Browns are not just losing a player. They are losing the last connection to the rebuild that started under Sashi Brown in the mid-2010s. Bitonio outlasted four head coaches, three franchise quarterbacks, and a parade of front office hires. He was the constant in a franchise that has not been constant about anything else.
His timing also says something. Bitonio is walking away coming off another high-level season. He is not retiring because he has no game left. He is retiring because he wants to go out on top. That is the move of a player with self-awareness, a strong family situation, and enough money in the bank to not need the next contract.
Cleveland now has a real problem to solve. Bitonio anchored the interior of the offensive line. The Browns can shift Wyatt Teller, slide a young guard into the rotation, or hit free agency for a veteran replacement. None of those options replace what Bitonio gave them. He was an All-Pro for half a decade. You do not pick those up in May.
The Cleveland fan base has produced very few moments worth celebrating in the last 25 years. Bitonio’s career is one of them. He was the guard the franchise needed, when the franchise needed it, and he stayed. That is more loyalty than most teams have any right to expect from a Pro Bowl-caliber player.
Hall of Fame voters will get to wrestle with his case in five years. The numbers say yes. Seven Pro Bowls and two All-Pros at guard is a Canton-level resume. He never played in a Super Bowl. He never won a playoff game. Those are facts that will work against him with some voters and not matter at all to others.
For now, Cleveland gets to say goodbye. The Browns will retire his jersey at some point in the next few years. He will walk out of a stadium one more time, this time without pads.
A Cleveland Brown for life. Not bad for a guy who was picked 35th overall.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
