Ex-wide receiver details time with Browns in Twitter thread

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Jaelen Strong unhappy about experience with team during preseason.

Veteran wide receiver Jaelen Strong, who spent training camp and the preseason with the Cleveland Browns, is still smarting over not making the team.

Strong signed with the Browns in February and had seven receptions for 52 yards and a touchdown in three preseason games. He was released on August 31 and did not sign with another team.

On Tuesday, Strong took to Twitter to express his dissatisfaction with the business side of the NFL in general, and with the way the Browns dealt with him over the summer.

I was never truly happy in the NFL and it took me not being in the NFL to actually understand it. The NFL took the love for the game away from me. I was playing it please others. Putting my body through horrible pains to please others who would never......

— Strizzy (@JaelenStrong) December 10, 2019

Strong’s beef with the Browns stems from his belief that he never truly had a chance to make the roster, and that the team basically ran him into the ground to save Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry for the regular season:

Cleveland was super lit and fun while it lasted no cap the locker room was like a big ass crib everybody vibing out like a brotherhood from day 1. But I don’t like how they handled my situation either. They shoulda released me after week 1 training camp....

..... I was running w the “ones” at one point and yes I know y’all thinking (obj/jarvis). Well they didn’t practice most of camp. I was w the 1’s for the entirety. Didn’t miss 1 practice after going 30 straight padded practices (UNHEARD OF). Coming off acl .....

And not once did I complain nor sit out after their docs knew how bad my knee swelled up day after day. Not one time did anybody offer a rest day or anything but I’m tough right? Lol so fuck it.

We get to week 3 of preseason and I can barely walk... I’m in treatment everyday so don’t say I am not... I’m trying to do all the right things. I played bad against TB. I was dead.. body legs etc. one of the worse things I put on tape I can attest to.. but the browns....

Knew why I looked and felt the way I felt after making play after play in camp for 30 straight padded practices. I mean why post me all over ya social media to get me familiar w ya fans just to release me???....

I feel like I was never in the plans and my camp play shocked them and forced them to do something they really ain’t wanna do and just blame it on me not being on SPT after all I think I made the effort to know the SPT Coach more well than most players just from OTA and camp....

It is understandable why Strong would be upset as no one would enjoy putting in the hard work needed to make an NFL team if the team truly never intends to keep you.

But that is offset by the fact that no other team has bothered to pick up Strong since he was released by the Browns, who were his third team since being a third-round selection by the Houston Texans in the 2015 NFL Draft.

Strong appeared in 20 games with the Texans, catching 31 passes for 330 yards and four touchdowns, before being waived after appearing in just one game in 2017 and serving a one-game suspension for an off-season arrest for illegal possession of marijuana.

He landed with the Jacksonville Jaguars and spent time on Jacksonville’s practice squad and appearing in one game, where he had three receptions for 38 yards and a touchdown. The Jaguars released him in April of last year while Strong was recovering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament and Strong did not catch on with a team for the 2018 season.

Strong may not like the way he was treated during his short time with the Browns, but he is not the first player to be used as a camp body.

The entire Twitter thread is still well worth the time to read as it highlights how a player can lose his passion for the game after dealing with the business side of the NFL.

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