Browns hire longtime ST ace Cribbs as intern

Longtime special teams ace Josh Cribbs has rejoined the Cleveland Browns, for whom he played eight NFL seasons, as a special teams intern, the team announced Thursday.

Cribbs, 34, has been on the job a little over a month after initially reaching out to head coach Hue Jackson and applying for the assistant special teams position. That job went to former NFL safety Sam Shade, who has eight years of college coaching experience, but Jackson still wanted to offer Cribbs an opportunity.

"We had great dialogue and conversations and felt like it was best to do everything I could to provide him an opportunity to understand what coaching was, from the bottom up," Jackson said. "I wanted to do everything I could to put him in position where he could be successful. He was very open to it and we made a decision of, ‘let's start on the ground floor and work our way up.'

"His reputation precedes itself. He was one of the best return guys in pro football. Plus he's a Cleveland Brown. He's one of our own. He told me over a phone call that he had a tremendous passion to get the organization back to winning and that means something to me."

Cribbs earned three Pro Bowl nods and one first-team All-Pro selection with the Browns, and he led the league in kick-return yardage, kick-return average and all-purpose yards in 2007. His eight kick-return TDs are tied for the most in NFL history with Leon Washington, and he ranks third all-time in combined kick- and punt-return yardage (13,488).

He also played one season each with the New York Jets and Indianapolis Colts. Cribbs hasn't played since the 2014 season and officially announced his retirement last year.

--Field Level Media