Getty Former Browns running back Peyton Hillis.
Peyton Hillis hasn’t played for the Cleveland Browns since 2011, but his disdain for the Pittsburgh Steelers still runs strong.
Hillis has become active on Twitter lately, breaking out from a nearly eight year inactive period. The former Browns running back made some noise on Friday after posting a video burning a tackling dummy with Steelers gear on with a flamethrower.
“This is for Cleveland,” Hillis tells the camera before going to town on the Steelers-clad dummy in the grainy phone footage that quickly garnered thousands of views.
Had some fun!!! No one likes the Steelers..
Hillis joked about his video’s lack of quality shortly after. “I see I have to buy a better phone!” he wrote, later adding. “Man can’t even joke around with people any more sad! Y’all take everything to serious!”
Man can’t even joke around with people any more sad!! Y’all take everything to serious!
Hillis was off the grid for quite some time as a public figure, but is back in the spotlight because he recently started a podcast dubbed “Movin the Chains” that covers Cleveland sports, a topic he is still passionate about.
Peyton Hillis Has Regrets About Browns Tenure
Hillis was mostly a one-year wonder in Cleveland, but he made the most out of it. The former seventh-round pick ran for 1,177 yards during the 2010-11 season, rumbling his way into the hearts of Browns fans. Hillis became so much of a fan-favorite for his bruising, blue-collar style that he was voted onto the Madden cover the following year.
Never forget that Peyton Hillis was on the cover of Madden.
However, things went awry after his breakout season, with a hamstring injury, a questionable missed game with strep throat and contract talks derailing his time with the Browns. He recently expressed regret over how his time with the Browns ended.
“Honestly, I wish I would’ve retired in Cleveland,” Hillis said on Bull and Fox on 92.3 The Fan. “I wish that I could’ve played there for 10 more years. Even my wife said we loved our time in Cleveland more than we loved anywhere else, even in Arkansas. We just enjoyed Cleveland and every time we go back, we try to find an excuse to go back to Cleveland all the time even to this day. There’s a lot of things that I wish I would’ve done differently, not just for me but for the fans also. I was young and stupid, what can I say?”
Peyton Hillis Couldn’t Find Success After Leaving Cleveland
GettyPeyton Hillis.
Hillis said he felt that the contract talks he was having with the team were misrepresented in the media.
“Looking back at it — I felt so terrible because I really did feel like the fans had a misrepresentation of what was really going on,” Hillis said. “I didn’t know how news was getting or how things were being said, but it wasn’t nothing like what they said it was. They would say they were offering me contracts that they weren’t and that I was denying them. They didn’t even ask me about any contracts because that was the lockout year. You couldn’t even negotiate contracts for the longest period of time.
“It was one of those situations where I think I knew I wanted to be in Cleveland. And so they’d tell me one thing and tell the news a different thing. It was just confusing and I don’t really know where it all went bad.”
Hillis had stints with the Giants and Chiefs after leaving the Browns, but could never find the repeat success of his breakout year. He totaled just 671 yards in his final three seasons before stepping away from the game.