Dillon Gabriel’s Parents Set to Miss QB’s NFL Debut

The Browns are 1-3 in the season with a single win against the Packers, prompting Kevin Stefanski to give an opportunity to rookie Dillon Gabriel.

Dillon Gabriel’s Parents Set to Miss QB’s NFL Debut

Dillon Gabriel (Image via PFSN)

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After a slow start to the season marred by quarterback inconsistency, the Cleveland Browns have decided to bench their veteran quarterback, Joe Flacco. The former Super Bowl champion was replaced by an Oregon Ducks product and a third-round pick in the spring Draft, Dillon Gabriel.

Gabriel, 24, is one of the best collegiate players in recent times, with 64 starts over six seasons. He would start against a strong contender in the Minnesota Vikings. Historically, quarterbacks have had a poor record when it comes to their first career starts in Cleveland. Since 1999, there have been sixteen different quarterbacks who made their first start in Cleveland, and all of them have lost in that game.

They also have poor production numbers, with more interceptions than touchdowns. In one of the most pressured games of his life, Gabriel had another setback, as his parents supposedly couldn’t secure a ticket and would miss the game. He joked in the presser:

Fun fact: Need to get my dad a passport. So we’re learning about that. Second, just a little later in the week, so mom and dad, it’s from Hawai’i, you can imagine that flight’s even further than what we just did.

Normally, this would not be the case, but Gabriel makes a unique distinction when he takes it to the field on Sunday. Gabriel is the first NFL quarterback in history to make his debut start in a foreign country as the Browns play the Vikings at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London next week.

Though it would be his first start in the league, Gabriel has appeared in two games. He completed three passes for 19 yards and a touchdown during the two appearances in garbage time. Nonetheless, he’s ready for the first start. He added:

You wait for the perfect time, you are going to wait a whole lifetime. So, for me, I’ve always been ready,” Gabriel said in a press conference earlier this week.

Heading into battle, Gabriel has the vote of confidence from coach Kevin Stefanski and teammates.

Garrett Gabriel does have a passport but he hadn’t renewed it

In a conversation with Christian Shimabuku of Aloha State Daily, Dillon Gabriel’s father, Garrett Gabriel, revealed more about why he wouldn’t be flying all the way to London to see their son in action. Garrett Gabriel revealed that he did have a passport, but he hadn’t renewed them because he thought he would not be traveling outside his country.

Garrett Gabriel
Garrett Gabriel (Image via KHON2)

He admitted that despite the circumstances, Dillon Gabriel was fine with his parents not being present there to watch him from the sidelines. The Senior Gabriel said:

I did have a passport, but we didn’t renew it because we were thinking we weren’t going to go anywhere outside the states. And of course, by the time we decided to renew, they said it takes five days, and so we’re like, you know what? We’ll just watch it from home. And (Dillon) was fine with that.

Given the early kickoff on Sunday, Garrett said that the Gabriel family is adjusting their schedules accordingly. He added:

We’ll probably sleep a little earlier than normal. I think we’ll be ready to go at 3:30, doesn’t matter what time. Everybody wants to be there for his first start and just enjoy the moment. We’ll have some leftovers, some breakfast, but we’ll definitely be up for it.

It won’t be just the Gabriel family who will be rooting for the rookie on Sunday. Gabriel, who’s set to become the first Hawaiian public high school graduate to start as a quarterback in the NFL, has the support of everyone in his native town of Mililani. He also understands that his presence on the global stage is as a representative of Mililani and the community there. There’s a lot at stake, including his starting job and the Browns’ plans.

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