Joel Bitonio Shares Personal Importance of Long Snap Streak Ending

Bitonio ended snap streak that spanned over six seasons when he missed the Browns’ Week 6 win over the 49ers

Joel Bitonio bid farewell to a snap streak he accumulated over seven seasons last Sunday against the 49ers, missing his first game since 2017 due to a knee injury he suffered in Week 4.

The streak, 6,846 snaps, won’t be remembered the same way as Bitonio’s former teammate and Hall of Famer, Joe Thomas, whose 10,363 consecutive snaps will likely never be touched again by an NFL player.

But it should still be a credit to the elite level of durability brought to the Cleveland Browns by Bitonio, who returned to practice Wednesday and could be available again Sunday against the Colts just two weeks after receiving knee scope surgery.

“I wanted to play, bad,” Bitonio said. “I was probably being a little selfish, honestly. Not just for the streak, but the competitor in me wanted to be on the field because I feel like I can help the team when I’m out there, but we all decided that it was probably best to not play on 13 days post-surgery for the remainder of the season, for the twelve other games we have.

“But it was a tough decision. I was trying to get back there, but it wasn’t quite ready.”

Nov 27, 2022; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Browns guard Joel Bitonio (75) celebrates the team s overtime win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at FirstEnergy Stadium / Mandatory Credit: Scott Galvin-USA TODAY Sports

Bitonio, who is fighting to claim his sixth consecutive Pro Bowl season and third-straight first team All-Pro year at age 32, credited his streak to some of the Browns’ offensive linemen who had streaks of their own before him.

Thomas, of course, is the most famous one, but Alex Mack and Mitchell Schwartz also played every snap in Bitonio’s rookie season in 2013. That trio planted the seed in Bitonio’s mind that missing a snap was never a good thing.

“I thought it was just common practice,” he said. “I didn’t miss a snap for my first year, and I was like, ‘All right, this is easy.’ And then I got hurt in my second year, and that went down the drain.

“But it was definitely fostered off of this toughness, and guys were playing through injuries, and Mack had the appendix thing, and he played through it — crazy things, you know what I mean? It was just a pride thing that you wanted to be out there for your guys.”

Bitonio’s always been one to look at the bright side, though, which he constantly did throughout the tougher times of his snap streak. Buried in those snaps were infamous periods and moments in Browns history, none more than when the Browns went 0-16 when Bitonio began his streak in 2017.

It’s no surprise, then, that Bitonio is viewing the end of his streak with the same attitude.

“It’s almost, in a weird way, kind of a relief that you’re not worried about your helmet snapping off or your shoelace breaking or anything like that,” he said. “If we’re winning by 30 points and coach wants to take me out, I’m like, ‘Yeah, I can go out now.’ You know what I mean? We’re winning this game.”