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The Wright stuff: Cleveland running back making the most of opportunities

October 29, 2007

For every showboating, jabberjawing player in the NFL, there should be a Jason Wright.

After all, how many skill players have you heard with this perspective: “I’ve started at the bottom of the ladder every time,” said Wright, the Cleveland Browns’ third-year running back out of Northwestern University. “All of us have issues with pride, but I think I’m much worse than the average guy. It’s God’s grace that that has happened.”

Jason Wright Cleveland Browns

Inhale deeply. In a profession that worships fame and self, Wright is a breath of unpretentiously fresh air. He is nothing if not candid. Ask for his testimony and he will happily open the vault on a dark past, eager to illustrate the regenerative power of Christ.

“Want the full version or the CliffsNotes?” he said, laughing.

A star at Diamond Bar High School in Southern California, Wright arrived at college dripping with conceit. But all his prior claims to fame – namely football and academics – got lost in the crowd at Northwestern, where great athletes and smart students abounded. As he tried to fit in socially, he turned to drug abuse and sexual promiscuity.

At first, several bold Christians in his dorm tried and failed to make a dent in Wright’s callous shell.

“I blew them off all the time,” he said. “There was this former fellow pre-med student who approached me and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got a Bible study tonight. Want to come?’ I said, ‘No, you go ahead. I’m going to party all night.’ Then when I got a better grade on a test the next day, I’d wave it in their faces. That’s the type of guy I was.”

Soon, though, Wright started to feel the hopelessness of worldly indulgence. And when teammate Rashidi Wheeler collapsed and died during a preseason workout on Aug. 3, 2001 – shortly before Wright’s sophomore season – it rattled him.

“God used that to show me how empty I really was, how broken I was, the miserable state I was in,” he said. “I remember one night in my dorm room, I was weeping and bitter. Something was so wrong. I called my parents, and I was hysterical with my mom. I hit my knees and said, ‘God, help me.’”

True conversion was yet to come. As Wright learned more about Christianity – attending a local church and Northwestern’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes group – he continued to dabble in sin.

“I’d put on this face,” he said. “I’d walk around with a Bible so Christians would think I was holy. It was the pinnacle of hypocrisy. I’d finish spending the night with my girlfriend and then go to church with Bible in hand.”

Through the continued influence of godly friends in FCA, Wright finally stopped straddling the fence in the spring of 2003, his junior year, and accepted Christ.

“He is very transparent about his past,” said longtime Browns chaplain Tom Petersburg. “He finds that very freeing. Last spring, I was at a large men’s breakfast with him. At the end, he opened it up for questions and was very transparent. He just oozes God’s grace.”

Wright finished among the all-time leaders at Northwestern in rushing yards (2,625), all-purpose yards (4,030) and points (210). But that didn’t translate into immediate NFL success. He went undrafted in 2004, got signed and cut by San Francisco and Atlanta, and finally signed with Cleveland in September 2005.

After spending most of that season on the practice squad, he earned a roster spot last year, getting limited playing time (62 carries, 189 yards) behind Reuben Droughns and rookie Jerome Harrison. He agreed to a one-year contract extension last February, but quickly fell down the depth chart when the Browns signed free agent Jamal Lewis, the former Baltimore Ravens star, in March.

This year started much like 2006, with Wright getting a combined four carries in Cleveland’s first four games. But when Lewis suffered a foot injury during a 34-17 loss to New England in Week 5, Wright was the beneficiary. In the New England game and the 41-31 win over Miami that followed, the 5-foot-10, 214-pound cannonball combined to rush for 118 yards and a touchdown while catching seven passes for 82 yards.

Lewis returned to action last weekend in Cleveland’s 27-20 win over St. Louis, forcing Wright into a backup role again (he carried 4 times for 19 yards). But Wright said his biggest concern these days is not his professional aspirations, but his spiritual well-being.

“If that’s right, whatever happens, happens,” he said. “I’m content to be wherever He wants me to be on the depth chart. If being a perennial Pro Bowler and a 1,000-yard rusher causes me to build my own kingdom, then I’ll thank God for that.”

Being a reserve, Wright said, has plenty of spiritual benefits.

“I’ve learned He’ll test you,” he said. “My heart and motives are more important than what I do on the football field. That means nothing to Him. That’s how God operates, and that’s God’s goal. We’re not God’s P.R. people. He doesn’t need that. If he wanted to, he could write it on the sky. What he really wants is our hearts.”

Still, Wright has played a crucial role for an improving team this season. While his numbers this year (180 yards rushing, 97 yards receiving) aren’t eye-popping, he has led Cleveland in rushing twice and is averaging 4.2 yards per carry. That’s good news for the Browns, who are no longer one of the NFL’s annual laughingstocks. They can improve to 5-3 with a victory against visiting Seattle (4-3) Sunday.

“I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do,” Wright said. “We’ve put in the hard work. Maybe in years past, you could’ve argued, ‘Oh, the Browns don’t have the talent.’ But now we do. We’ll just have to see how it turns out on Sundays.”

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