As he walked onto campus at Wilson High for his first day of Summer football practice in 2005, Joel Bitonio would have been hard to pick out of the crowd. He was 5-foot-10, 180 pounds, and, in his memory, unremarkable in a field of eager freshmen ready to try out for the Bruins’ football team.
Bitonio’s head coach for his time as a Bruin, Mario Morales, does not disagree with his former lineman’s self-scouting report.
“Well his voice was pretty high-pitched when I first met him, meeting the freshmen that first day,” Morales said with a laugh. “He did not stand out like, ‘Wow, look at this guy.’ He blended right in. We always talk about taking acorns and turning them into oak trees, and he definitely ended up being that guy. We honestly didn’t see it coming, but he ended up being that oak tree.”
Indeed in the decorated, century-long history of Long Beach football, few men have cast the kind of shadow that Bitonio has. After a standout career at Nevada he was a 12-year NFL pro with the Cleveland Browns, earning six Pro Bowl nods–more than any other one of Long Beach’s 100+ NFL products. Bitonio formally announced his retirement earlier this Summer, and recently took time to reflect on his football career, from his roots in Long Beach to a last trip into the Browns’ facility, where he received a standing ovation.
“That got me a little bit when I came in and they had the whole staff there,” he said. “It’s always the people who make anything special. My body is very ready to be done with football–it’s the mind. It’s the friendships and the people. For me, the training staff and equipment staff–they’ve been there the whole 12 years with me, so I’m closer with some of them than I am anybody else.”
‘I was confident’
Athletes often struggle with the decision to retire, but Bitonio chuckled at that idea.
“I got to a point the last couple seasons where it was more stressful getting to gameday, getting my body ready,” he said. “Are my knees going to hold up? Is my back going to make it? I threw my back out three times this past season–I’m like, ‘What am I doing? I can barely walk.’ I feel like I was sharp when I was healthy and playing but it was just time.”
Bitonio said he knew he’d reached the finish line by the end of last season, and had his entire family come to his last game.
“I knew, I was confident,” he said. “I want to be able to be there and be able to play with my kids for the next 20 years. The preparation just got to where it was harder than the games, prepping my body all week to try and go out there and perform at an acceptable level to my own standard.”
The future is wide open for Bitonio and his family–he and his wife Courtney have three children, two daughters and a boy. First up on the list for him was a Spring Break vacation, and now he’s planning out his first August off since he started playing football as a kid.
“I’ve never had an August off, ever,” he said. “I want to take a vacation in August. My brother’s birthday is August 2nd, I’ve never been able to celebrate that with him. I’m looking forward to a real Thanksgiving and Christmas–I haven’t had a Thanksgiving off since high school. Christmas you’ve either got practice or games, so you celebrate the 24th or 26th or whatever. I’m looking forward to enjoying the holidays and relaxing.”
Bitonio said his family is planning on moving back to California but will remain in Cleveland for a while longer first. He admitted that for as much as he’s looking forward to the time with his family, it’s going to be strange not suiting up when the weather turns colder.
“I haven’t really thought about gameday,” he said. “I’ll just be a fan. I’m sure I’ll still be around for sure, I’ll be figuring that part of it out. I told all the linemen I’m going to go heckle them when it’s 95 out and I’m drinking a Bud Light on the sideline.”
‘He’s stayed grounded to the city of Long Beach’
Plenty of Long Beach products reach the professional level and let their hometown ties fade. That’s a normal and understandable part of the process for athletes whose lives are often planned out 12 months a year. Bitonio was never one of those, however, a point his former high school coach brought up.
Morales, now the head coach at Lakewood High, said that Bitonio has “stayed grounded to the city of Long Beach. I’ve seen that from afar and I love that, whenever he has the chance he’ll mention Long Beach. I’ve been out to see him a few times in Cleveland, I love seeing him whenever I can.”
Bitonio said that playing at Wilson was a huge impact on him, as was being a three-sport athlete playing not just football but basketball and track and field as well.
“Playing three sports at a public high school in Long Beach, California really shaped me,” he said. “There’s so many different personalities in an NFL locker room and I had all those people in high school.”
Bitonio said his lauded footwork–a huge part of how he got drafted–came from playing basketball for so many years. Hooping with his friends also gave him some lifelong memories, like playing against DeMar DeRozan and having his high school career ended by another NBA superstar.
“It’s one of my bigger flexes–yeah I was alright at basketball, we had DeMar in our league and my last high school game was against Kawhi Leonard. It was a different world,” he said.
Bitonio said that he’s kept in touch with his high school coaches and a ton of teammates, and enjoyed hearing from so many of them after he announced his retirement.
“It was just cool,” he said. “We weren’t even that good in high school, but the funnest time playing football is Friday Night Lights with your buddies. It’s funny, I had a big routine on a Sunday for an NFL game–in high school, you’re in Algebra three hours before a game.”
Bitonio also joked that while the rigors of the NFL life are behind him, the rigors of being a father of three energetic young kids will keep him occupied.
“One weekend early in the offseason we had three birthday parties back to back to back days, I’m thinking ‘this is tougher than practice,’” he said.
Morales said that while it’s fun for coaches to have kids they coached make the NFL, it’s more gratifying to see young men grow into good husbands, fathers, and members of their community.
“I’m very proud of him, and he knows that,” said Morales. “The man and father and husband he’s become–he’s so generous with his time, and financially he’s done a lot of things that people aren’t aware of too. He’s everything that coaches dream of your players developing into.”
Disclosure: Joel Bitonio has donated to the562’s non-profit in previous years
