Browns DE Chase Winovich ready for 'really cool game' against hometown Pittsburgh Steelers

There's a lot riding on the Browns' season finale Sunday at the Pittsburgh Steelers. A lot of that is due to the Steelers' playoff hopes, and what the Browns can do to spoil those chances.

For defensive end Chase Winovich, there's a lot riding on the game as well. Personally, more than anything else.

"First off, I’m from Pittsburgh, the suburbs, shoutout to Thomas Jefferson (High School)," Winovich said during a Monday Zoom call. "So this is a really cool game for me. I never made it to the district championship, which is played at Heinz Field. And so this is my first time actually playing at the field. So this is really exciting for a couple different reasons.

"But on the Browns notes, as a Browns player, I don’t wanna say I’m contractually obligated, but I definitely feel some sort of obligation as a Browns player to try to win this game with everything that’s on the line, and I really look forward to that opportunity."

Winovich, like so many who grew up in the Pittsburgh area, had his share of Steelers jerseys as a kid. He had a "favorite Steeler player," if you will, in Hall of Fame safety Troy Polamalu.

However, Winovich wasn't necessarily one of those typical Pittsburgh kids who just twirled his Terrible Towel and cheered on the Steelers. In fact, he acknowledges he may have been one of those kids who was swimming upstream, so to speak, with regards to his football loyalties.

"I was always a rebel," Winovich said. "Like, I respected players. … However, I was actually a Marshall Faulk fan. I was a huge Rams fan and went to the game as a kid wearing a Marshall Faulk jersey one time when they were playing the Steelers. So I think it’s apropos that I ended up as a Patriot and as a Brown, who knows how the rest of my career plays out."

It's a career that Winovich, while running around the Pittsburgh suburb of Jefferson Hills as a youth, admits wasn't something he envisioned for himself. To him, football was something he did, if not as a hobby, certainly as something to do for fun.

That's why Winovich didn't see himself becoming the next James Harrison or Brett Keisel or any number of other Steelers legends. It was the sport itself that he loved as much as a given team.

"I didn’t really have the idea of me making the NFL," Winovich said. "I just liked playing football. It wasn’t like, ‘Hey, I want to play for the Steelers’ or something like that. So I was maybe in, like, middle school when I was just like, ‘Hey, why not? Why not do this?’ And I was just like, ‘I wanna play in the NFL.’

"And once I set my mind to it, it was kind of one of those things. But I don’t know if it was necessarily for the Steelers, it just was what it was. I’ve always kind of been a rebel. I’ve always beat to my own drum."

Winovich has started to find his place in the Browns defensive front now that he's overcome some nagging injuries that bothered him both in training camp and early in the regular season. He's played in the last three games after alternating being active and inactive in his first four games back off the injured reserve list.

On Christmas Eve against the New Orleans Saints, Winovich started due to the one-series benching of Myles Garrett. He had what was a season-high six tackles in that game.

On Sunday in the Browns' 24-10 win at the Washington Commanders, Garrett was back in the starting lineup, but Winovich managed to make his presence felt as well. With just under seven minutes left in the first half, he managed to get through the Commanders line and get his hands on quarterback Carson Wentz, dropping him for a 10-yard loss on the sack.

It was Winovich's first sack of the season. He wanted to make sure he got full credit for it, as well as get a chance to unveil his sack celebration.

"I knew that the cavalry were coming," Winovich said. "So I had to get him down quick if I wanted the full sack. … For me, it was a little bit of a I’ve been through a lot these past two years, try to get back and get that sack again. Finally I got it and we were talking building up to it, what the sack celebration was going to be, had a lot of people ask me.

"So I don’t know if you guys have seen the old-school telephones where you spin the dial, you spin the dial back, you spin the dial again, and made a phone call to whoever created the universe, call him God if you want, and just gave him thanks just to be healthy, be able to play the game I love, and to be out there with my teammates."

Next Sunday won't be the first time Winovich will be able to play the game he loves against his hometown team. He actually made his NFL debut as a third-round pick of the New England Patriots in the 2019 season opener against the Steelers, recording a tackle in a 33-3 Patriots win.

Winovich, acquired by the Browns last spring, was on the injured reserve list with a hamstring injury for Cleveland's Week 3 win over Pittsburgh. That just adds a little bit more to his homecoming.

The Browns go into the game looking to get to 8-9 for the second consecutive season. It's not necessarily an accomplishment, but after starting 3-7, it could be viewed as progress, especially after quarterback Deshaun Watson returned from an 11-game suspension.

The Steelers, though, have everything to play for in the game, even if they don't control their own destiny. They need Winovich's old team, the Patriots, to lose to the Buffalo Bills and the Miami Dolphins to lose to the New York Jets.

However, Pittsburgh also needs to win the game against Cleveland. That puts a little extra on a rivalry game, which the hometown kid can appreciate.

"I mean, this is obviously a big game," Winovich said. "I mean, Browns-Steelers, they got a great fan base here and Pittsburgh has a great fan base there. So it’s like when you clash two very willing teams against each other with so much on the line, there’s obviously going to be some fireworks, so could be fun."

Contact Chris at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com.

On Twitter: @ceasterlingABJ

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Chase Winovich ready for homecoming in Browns finale vs. Steelers