Only 67 players have played a game for both The Cleveland Browns And Pittsburgh SteelersFormer Steelers first-round pick Devin Bush wants to become the 68th player to wear both jerseys in this heated AFC North rivalry.

“When you come from the other side, it’s literally the same thing,” Bush said at the start of Browns training camp. “All I heard was ‘Brownies.’ … It’s just the rivalry, it’s always been there, it’s always deep. It’s more physical. There’s more preparation behind it. There’s more talk about the game.”

Bush will get a taste of what it’s like on the other side of the rivalry in 2024. The 26-year-old signed a one-year deal with the Browns this offseason after spending last season with the The Seattle Seahawks.

Bush found solace in his return to the AFC North in the offseason. And although his career began in Pittsburgh, Cleveland isn’t all that foreign to him considering his father played for the Browns from 2001-02.

“It’s cool, it’s funny,” Bush says of the irony. “It’s different than when he played, of course. It’s different for me, but what I find funny is that it all happened to me, and it happened against his team. And just being here is a funny coincidence.”

Bush was selected 10th overall out of Michigan by the Steelers and immediately made an impact as a nimble defensive linebacker. After his impressive rookie season, in which he finished third in the AP Rookie of the Year voting, Browns fans believed Bush was the Steelers’ next great defensive lineman who would torment Cleveland for years to come.

Then, just five games into the 2020 season, he suffered a brutal ACL tear – as fate would have it, against the Browns. After surgery and extensive rehab, Bush struggled to regain his rookie form. That led to Pittsburgh being unwilling to exercise the fifth-year option on his rookie contract. It’s no exaggeration to say the injury completely changed the course of Bush’s career.

“It was one of those things that you can’t really get helped with,” Bush said. “It’s just a process that happens day by day. … There’s no special therapy. There’s no special trick. There’s no speech. There’s no one to help you except yourself and what you want to do to get back in the game.”

“Looking back now, it definitely helped me grow as a person and grow as a player.”

Bush left Pittsburgh scarred in many ways, and his subsequent falling out with the Steelers over the injury was a sobering reminder that football is a business.

This situation turned out to be another valuable learning experience for him.

“I would say I learned the business on the spot,” admitted Bush. “It was definitely a process coming back, but through that process I was able to learn a lot about how the business runs, what happens, the causes and effects of things. I mean, I learned a lot about the business. And I learned a lot about how to conduct myself in the business.”

This side of football was a whole new world for Bush. Like many young players, the euphoric backdrop of college football can “fool you,” the 26-year-old explained. Players are sold on the idea of ​​playing “for the love of the game,” sacrificing their bodies for championships and their teammates. Those Hollywood tropes lose their appeal when a team can fire you at a moment’s notice and suddenly the checks stop cashing.

Bush learned that the hard way, which is why he’s mostly grateful he still has the opportunity to play football. That it’s with a franchise he knows well is a bonus.

“So far I’m enjoying it. I love being here,” he said. “I know everyone on the team really well, I know this team really well and I know how things work. Right now I’m just taking it step by step and just having fun.”

Bush was just three years old when his father played briefly for Cleveland in 2001. The Michigan graduate doesn’t remember much about the two years his father spent with the franchise. However, somewhere in a collection of family photos are some pictures of Bush in a Browns jersey. And now he’s wearing a Browns jersey with his name on it.

“He’s just happy I’m still playing,” Bush said of his father’s reaction to him joining his former team. “For the league, it’s different. If it was college, it would be different, but for the league, it’s like, yeah, OK, you’re going to be there, one-year deal, you’re going to be there, maybe you’re out. So I’m just happy I’m still playing and still love the game.”

The father-son duo share a special bond now because they play for the Browns, which is a rare reverse turn to villain for the younger Bush. He knows what it means to switch sides in the rivalry. He still remembers Cleveland’s famous playoff win over the Steelers in January 2020. Although he wasn’t at the game, he and his former teammates were stunned by the 48-37 loss – the Browns’ first playoff win since the team was re-formed in 1999.

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“It was like, ‘Did that really just happen?'” he said. It was a wild-card game and on the first play the snap went over (Ben Roethlisberger’s) head and after that it was a disaster. It was one of those moments where you think, ‘Yeah, did that really just happen to us?'”

Since Bush is on a one-year deal, he has no idea what his career will hold after 2024. However long his time in Cleveland lasts, Bush hopes to help create more memorable moments for the Browns like this one – at the expense of the team he used to play for.

“I definitely love night games in Cleveland,” he said. “This is honestly probably one of the best times to play in Cleveland. I’m just excited to be back in the AFC North. I was in the NFC West and it was a whole different atmosphere, a whole different style and it was something I wasn’t familiar with.”