A Special Father's Day For Three Browns Players
As fathers celebrate their holiday, three players for the Cleveland Browns have extra reasons to revel in the festivities this year, grateful for the children they have had in the past few years; Joel Bitonio, Cody Parkey and Ryan Switzer.
Bitonio and Parkey have similar reasons to celebrate this year. Bitonio missed the first two weeks of OTAs in part because he ha a specific plan to get himself ready for the season, but additionally because his wife was preparing to give birth to their second child.
In addition to simply being supportive to his wife and taking care of the couple's first child, there is still the element of a pandemic. As indestructible as players may sometimes feel, a situation like COVID-19 can make those closest to them particularly vulnerable.
Thoughts naturally have concerns about what a COVID-19 diagnosis would mean for a pregnant woman and the child. There's also a little extra care in how they deal with the world around them in terms of they interact, because there is an understandable concern about a sick child. The Bitonios welcomed a healthy child as the second team All-Pro guard announced at minicamp.
Cody Parkey welcomed a child during last year's offseason. In their case, they were already pregnant when the pandemic suddenly spread throughout the world. Parkey was worried enough about that he was not able to train properly, which impacted his leg strength for last season.
In his press conference on Thursday, special teams coach Mike Priefer noted his leg was more powerful this year.
The added challenge in Parkey's case is the couple was already pregnant when the world was just beginning to learn how to deal with the virus. That element of the unknown creates additional stress and his focus was on his pregnant partner and their then unborn child.
Like many people, Parkey locked down last summer, putting his own career at risk in the process. Fortunately, they welcomed a healthy baby and Parkey had successful season, taking over the kicking job for the Browns and making 19 of 22 field goal attempts during the regular season and connected on all three field goal attempts in the playoffs.
Most people are aware of the situation with Ryan Switzer's son, Christian, as it became news across the country, but especially Browns fans who were extremely supportive of Switzer as he took everyone through the journey on social media.
They found Christian in a pool of blood in his crib, which sent them to the emergency room. After a couple days in the hospital, they went home, but did not have an explanation of what happened. Hoping it was behind them, they were horrified to find their son once again in a pool of his own blood and went back to the emergency room.
It's difficult to imagine a more terrifying experience for a parent than to have a child have a health problem, where they are totally powerless to do anything about it. They had no idea why this was happening and were searching for answers. Their tiny child was forced to endure exploratory surgeries in hopes of finding the problem in order to fix it.
The Switzers took Christian to a hospital in Boston before they were finally able to get the issue resolved. Now, Christian is healthy and the Switzers are back to as normal as things get right now, grateful for the doctors and nurses that helped save their son.
One member of the Browns front office has reason to celebrate Father's Day this year in Andrew Berry, who is either the most sentimental man on the planet, one of the most efficient, or simply the world's worst planner.
On the first day of the 2021 NFL Draft, Berry and his wife Brittan welcomed Eden into the world that morning before he had to run the Browns draft that evening. He gets the bragging rights of being able to say Eden was the team's first pick of the day, but for a Harvard educated man, they could have planned it for any other day on the calendar.
Nevertheless, the Browns appear to have been successful in what they were hoping to do with their draft this year, so the day and the weekend were a successful.
Overall, plenty of reasons for all three players and the GM to celebrate on Father's Day.
READ MORE: What We Learned from Mike Priefer's Presser
