EXCLUSIVE: Rodney McLeod Opens Up About His Injury, Road To Recovery, Future Plans and More

Cleveland Browns safety Rodney McLeod meets down with Noah Weiskopf for an exclusive interview to discuss his biceps injury, how he is progressing, his future goals, and more.

As a 12-year NFL veteran and Super Bowl champion, he’s the type of guy that organizations want on their roster to help educate new players the proper way to conduct themselves in a league that exposes weaknesses. However, you can never fully prepare for when your own body develops a weakness. The type that abruptly ends those valuable end-of-career seasons.

McLeod is no stranger to serious injuries. He has had multiple terrible injuries over his illustrious NFL career, including a ruptured ACL and MCL in 2018 and another torn ACL in 2020. Injuries have never stopped the 33-year-old Maryland product, but his injury with the Browns in 2023 tested him.

When McLeod’s alarm rang at 7:30 a.m. on the day of the Steelers game, he had no idea it would be the last of a historic Browns regular season.

He went downstairs to the team hotel for breakfast. He had a wide range of selections, including eggs, bacon, oatmeal, waffles, french toast, pancakes, omelets, and a smoothie. McLeod packed his cardboard to-go box with three pancakes, syrup, and a bottle of Essential water before driving away.

He left the hotel in his black Range Rover Sport and arrived at Cleveland Browns Stadium around 9 a.m.

McLeod was prepared for an AFC North duel after completing his pregame rituals.

First off, McLeod heads to the training room where he does some activation stretching and other routines with assistant athletic trainer Pat Rock.

30 minutes later, he heads to the hot tub, hops in the shower, and does some more activation work. At 11 a.m., he then takes the field and goes through his pregame warmup routine, which includes defensive back drills and a variety of stretches to active his body.

With 11 minutes remaining in the game, the Browns led their division foe Pittsburgh Steelers 10-7. Pittsburgh had the ball on second-and-9 from their own 48-yard line. Steelers running back Jaylen Warren took the handoff right, evaded a Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah tackle, and bounced it outside. Warren forced Browns safety Rodney McLeod to the ground. He swiftly recovered and engaged in a tackle with several other Browns players before Warren landed on McLeod.When McLeod first saw that something was not  right with his bicep, he didn’t feel anything abnormal.

“I didn’t feel any pain,” McLeod explained. “I went down to pull my sleeve up and noticed a gap between the joint of my forearm and my bicep.” I glanced up farther and began to stretch my arm slightly, causing the muscle to extend much further than it should have. I saw it bounce and pulsate, so I knew I had done some harm to my bicep.”

McLeod raised his arm to the sidelines and subbed himself out. He instantly followed the trainers to the blue medical tent for additional examination.

He left the sideline and went to the X-ray room. McLeod quickly learned that his bicep had been torn. But there was still a glimmer of hope that he would return later in the season, due to defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz.

“After the game, [defensive coordinator] Jim Schwartz came in to check on me, he asked what happened and I told him it was a torn bicep,” McLeod said in a statement. “He was like, ‘Oh, guy, you’ll be back in a couple of weeks; you’re OK. He has had experience with torn biceps, and the problem was popeye syndrome, but I tore the bottom bicep ligament, which is only one attachment, whereas if I tore the tendons at the top, there was hope that I could rehab and return in a few weeks.”