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Cordel Littlejohn has no problem confessing that he voluntarily chose to walk down a path only the boldest of us consider.
“I’m a Cleveland Browns fan now,” Littlejohn recently told Legacy Library. “I don’t know how that happened.”
Granted, part of that likely stems from Littlejohn and his wife living in Cleveland. Not even decades in the Factory of Sadness have deterred Browns fans from remaining loyal and welcoming others into the brotherhood.
Imagine telling Littlejohn he’d find himself in that club only a few years ago, when his college career at Florida Atlantic left him burnt out.
“I couldn’t even watch football,” Littlejohn said. “I couldn’t watch college football. I didn’t want to touch a football. I just didn’t want anything to do with it.”
Littlejohn isn’t afraid to acknowledge that his time at FAU didn’t go as anyone planned. He signed with the Owls as the only quarterback in a loaded 2018 recruiting class, and he entered his redshirt freshman season competing for the starting job. However, incumbent Chris Robison returned to the team in the summer of 2019 after resolving off-field issues, and Littlejohn found himself as the odd man out in what had now become a four-man battle.
With an extremely difficult road to playing time at quarterback, Littlejohn approached offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. about a position change. The two agreed that his future might be at receiver instead, and Littlejohn spent the year developing for the Conference USA and Boca Bowl champions.
“It’s definitely a lot of pressure, a lot of people counting on you back home, a lot of people asking questions, like, ‘Man, when are you going to play?’” Littlejohn said.
“And then you got to deal with the coaching staff that they’re disappointed in you as well, because you’re not living up to what we recruited you [to do],” he continued. “It was a lot, man, it was a lot for sure.”
Then came Willie Taggart’s hiring and the COVID-impacted 2020 season. Littlejohn was among those who opted out, now admitting that his mental health played a significant role.
“It was still fun to go out and do things, but there was a lot of emotional attachment to it,” Littlejohn said. “That kind of hurt because, like, dang man, I thought I was supposed to be good, this great player, and I’m not.”
Littlejohn’s time with the Owls ended unceremoniously, and he parted ways with the program after briefly moving to cornerback.
“Whenever it was time to actually be done, it was like an emotional rollercoaster,” Littlejohn said. “I cried when I found out I was done. I’m like, ‘Dang, this is crazy.’”
That’s not to say Littlejohn entirely tried to forget his life in football. At one point during a job interview, he talked about the importance of being adaptable, having played three positions over a four-year stretch at FAU.
Life took Littlejohn, who grew up in North Carolina and later moved to Georgia, to Ohio. He’s working in pharmaceutical sales, and his wife is training to become a dermatologist. They’ll be tuned in on Sundays to see whether Deshaun Watson or Shedeur Sanders can provide some level of competency for the Browns at quarterback.
And as for college football itself? Littlejohn said he’s back watching games and playing EA Sports’ “College Football 27” in his free time.
“I’ll even coach my wife up a little bit,” Littlejohn laughed. “Right here, like that three-step drop in the hitch is exactly what it was supposed to look like. You know, a lot of quarterbacks might do this, but that’s exactly what it was supposed to look like.”
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