It's behind a paywall so no link. Enjoy.
Bay Village native is soaking up the moment as the Browns backup long snapper - no matter how long it lasts
- Updated: Aug. 19, 2024, 5:03 a.m.
- |Published: Aug. 19, 2024, 5:01 a.m.
By
CLEVELAND, Ohio — The last two weeks have been far from normal for 27-year-old Rex Sunahara.
The Bay Village native is busy living out a childhood dream in the most unconventional fashion.
A former high school three-sport star, Sunahara grew up a diehard Browns fan and lover of football. He has been on the periphery of the NFL over the last four years, serving as a backup long snapper on practice squads for Miami and Pittsburgh.
More Cleveland Browns coverage
- Browns need to take a different approach to their final preseason game – Terry Pluto
- Projecting the Browns’ 53-man roster: Where do things stand a week from roster cuts
- This one stat could answer the Browns’ biggest question about Deshaun Watson in 2024: Inside The Numbers
In a surreal turn, Sunahara has spent the last two Saturdays suiting up for the team he’s always cheered for, alongside players he’s long been a fan of, handling the long snapping duties for 13 total snaps.
“Pulling into the players’ lot and then coming in, walking out that gate, and then looking up and being like, ‘Oh I sat up there and watched the game. I sat there and watched the game,’” Sunahara told cleveland.com. “Some of my best memories with my friends are here in the Muni Lot in downtown. And I love Cleveland.
“It’s a dream come true. This has been my favorite team since I can remember.”
Sunahara and most of his family and close friends still live in Bay Village.
He’s got plenty of Browns-related memories from over the years that he’s reflected on more over the last two weeks, including attending Cleveland’s road win against the Bengals in 2021, when Denzel Ward logged a 99-yard pick-six, as well as being one of the fans who attended the Browns’ 2022 Christmas Eve loss to the Saints, the coldest regular-season home game in franchise history.
“I put on my ice fishing onesie that I have and we were all bundled up,” Sunahara said. “We’d crack open a beer and it would freeze within two minutes. I don’t know why — it was so cold and it stunk that we lost — but it was so much fun.”
At 6-6 and 242 pounds, it’s understandable that Sunahara was a star athlete for the Rockets from 2011 to 2015.
Browns backup long snapper Rex Sunahara was a star at Bay Village from 2011-15. In this photo, the former Rockets receiver and DB hauls in a first down reception in the second quarter play during their Division IV, Region 11 playoff game November 14, 2014 at Twinsburg High School.The Plain Dealer
He was an all-conference player in both football (where he played wide receiver and defensive back) and basketball, setting the school record for career blocks in the latter. He also pitched for the baseball team, and initially after graduating, he committed to Rhode Island for football and walked onto the basketball team as well.
“I was a better high school player than I was a college player,” he said of his basketball prowess. “I was the last guy on the end of the bench. I was a walk-on, but never played in a game that we lost. So that was something that I liked to carry.
“And I was a pitcher in baseball, and I loved playing that because it was what I got to do with all my friends. All of my friends are guys I played sports with and we’re still best friends to this day. They were all here today too, which was awesome.”
Sunahara transferred to West Virginia before the 2016 season and stayed there the next four years, overlapping with his dad, Reed Sunahara, who took over as the university’s women’s volleyball coach in 2015.
His dad is also how Sunahara said he got into long snapping in the first place.
Attending a football camp at the University of Cincinnati, where his father coached from 2000-11, Sunahara decided to do some work with the specialists.
1/63
Cleveland Browns vs. Minnesota Vikings, preseason game 2, August 17, 2024
“I just did it and it was really fun, and it was something that I enjoyed doing,” Sunahara said. “That’s what helped me go to college, and just trying to be better at it every day. And it’s just been great.”
Sunahara is officially in his first NFL season, with only practice squad time in Miami (2020-21) and Pittsburgh (2021, 2023). He’s also had two stints in the UFL with the San Antonio Brahmas, his most recent stop.
The Browns just happened to come calling at the perfect time, as Sunahara was mulling over the typical questions that most 20-somethings ask themselves eventually.
“It was a lot of disbelief and just a culmination of a lot of work, a lot of hard times,” Sunahara said. “A lot of (asking myself), ‘Should I stop? Should I get a job? What should I do?’ And it was surreal. Coming in here, you get to be in the same locker room as guys that you grew up watching.”
But at this point, Sunahara is used to the hard realities of the NFL.
After all, each team typically only has one dedicated long snapper.
In Cleveland, Hughlett has been a mainstay since he got here in 2015, handling long snapping duties in every game since. He’s been a team captain three times, including in each of the last two seasons, and signed a four-year extension in October of 2022.
“Charley is such a genuine person,” Sunahara said. “He has been helping me with any question I have.
“And it’s been great to be with someone that is such a veteran, is such a professional, and I’m just here to learn. I’m here to just soak up as much knowledge as I can from this guy.”
All of that is to say, Sunahara knows he is on borrowed time and has already experienced it. After being signed by the Browns on Aug. 8, he was waived on Aug. 12 in a series of bookkeeping roster moves, before being re-signed on Friday just ahead of the game with the Vikings.
Even with all the bouncing around Sunahara has done for football, he still doesn’t skip a beat when answering one question: Why hang onto the game this long?
“I love football,” he said. “I love this game. I love everything about it. I love being in the locker room. I love going to work every day. It’s also something my family did.
“You go back, my great grandfather played football, my grandfather played football, all my uncles played football. It’s just something that we do, and I cannot stress enough how much I love it. It’s something I’ll never — I’ll play until the wheels fall off.”
In Cleveland, this Browns fan and Bay Village kid is going to hope those wheels can stay on for a little while longer.
