CLEVELAND, Ohio — The House of Blues is a restaurant and bar known for its live music along the strip of Cleveland’s East 4th Street.
In early August 2024, Rex Sunahara was supposed to start working there.
At that point, the Bay Village native’s pro football career as a long snapper barely existed. Sunahara’s practice-squad stints with the Dolphins and Steelers had come and gone, and after a season in the XFL, Sunahara found himself back home.
“I’ve got to start thinking about some other things here,” Sunahara thought to himself. “I don’t really know what I’m gonna do.”
An uncle told Sunahara about the job opening as a stagehand at the House of Blues, where he’d help set up the live shows. He geared up for his first day in early August 2024.
Then the Browns — the team he grew up rooting for — called.
Longtime long snapper Charley Hughlett was dealing with a minor injury in training camp. They needed another guy, and that opened the door to Sunahara’s childhood dream.
Now Sunahara looks to establish himself as one of the NFL’s premiere long snappers.
More Cleveland Browns coverage
From whirlwind trade to scheme fit: Tyson Campbell’s growth with the Browns
Myles Garrett added to the Browns practice report as limited with a hip injury; 2 key rookies idle again: Browns takeaways
Browns remaining calm before potential storm: Berea Report (Video)
Beginnings
As a Bay Village native, Sunahara grew up 20 minutes west of where the Browns play their home games.
Sports ran in the family. He took part in basketball and baseball growing up, but football ran faster than the rest in the bloodline.
His grandfather, Peter Rekstis, played college football at both Army (1960) and Cincinnati (1962-1963). His uncle, Chet Moeller, was an All-American strong safety for Navy (1972-1975) and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2010.
Other uncles played for Youngstown State and eventually got into coaching, giving a young Sunahara an up-close feel for the game.
“You go to these games and it’s like I kind of grew up in it,” Sunahara said. “My uncles played and then coached too. I was at games on Saturdays … football is just what my family does, and I love it.”
Reed Sunahara, Rex’s father, instead leaned toward volleyball.
A two-time All-American that led UCLA (1982-86) to three NCAA titles, Reed eventually got into coaching and landed the head gig for the University of Cincinnati women’s team between 2000-11.
This brought Rex to Cincinnati for part of his upbringing. It was there that he attended a Cincinnati Bearcats youth football camp.
“It was like a kids camp, and there were position groups,” Sunahara said. “It was like the specialists were here and the quarterbacks were there and everything else. And I just happened to be at the specialists one.”
He watched a Bearcats long snapper snapping the ball. Sunahara tried it and quickly picked it up.
From there, his obsession grew.
Level up
Before the 2014 season, Ronald Rutt took over the Bay High School football program. The Rockets were coming off a one-win season, and Rutt looked to his seniors to lead the change of culture.
Among these seniors was Sunahara, who had moved back to Bay Village ahead of high school and was a three-sport star in football, basketball and baseball.
Rutt says Sunahara was up for the challenge and led by example.
“A lot of times you’re walking out to practice after a long day of school, and it’s kind of tough to get it going out there,” Rutt said. “(Sunahara) just kind of always was having fun, working his butt off and bringing other guys along with him.”
Standing 6-foot-6, Sunahara was used as a wide receiver and free safety with a work ethic displayed in big moments, during what would be a historic season for the Rockets. A prime example was their second game against neighboring rival Westlake. Sunahara caught a game-winning 42-yard Hail Mary.
“He was someone that defenses really had to adjust to with his presence out there and his size at wide receiver,” Rutt said. “You couldn’t just leave him alone with one corner or he was going to make a play over that kid.”
Sunahara was a top contributor and did whatever it took to make a win happen.
The senior star, however, didn’t stray far from long snapping and was the Rockets’ main long snapper, impressing Rutt.
“As a first-year head coach, you kind of take for granted when you’ve got a long snapper like him, it was perfect every time,” said Rutt, who coached the Bay Rockets through the 2024 season. “(The) confidence when you’re punting or kicking a field goal, that the snap was always going to be right on the money. Just really impressive.”
His play was contagious, and he helped lead the Rockets to eight wins and a regional final appearance, before they fell to the eventual state-champion Benedictine Bengals.
The accolades followed. Sunahara was a defensive selection on the All-Ohio Division IV third team; and an All-West Shore Conference and All-Northeast District honoree on both sides of the ball.
Sunahara was ready to play the next level.
A leap of faith
Originally, Sunahara aspired to continue both football and basketball coming out of high school. His recruitment was fickle.
Rhode Island was the only Division I school which allowed him to continue both sports at the collegiate level. In fall 2015, Sunahara converted to long snapper for the Rams football team and walked-on to the basketball team.
In football, Sunahara had four special teams tackles through eight games for a one-win Rams. The basketball team posted 17 wins, but Sunahara logged three total minutes the whole season.
And he was homesick.
“It was one of those things where I was just too far away,” Sunahara said. “Too far away from home at Rhode Island and I was like, ‘I just don’t really like it here.’”
Sunahara left after one year and weighed his options. Either he’d take his talents elsewhere, or transition to student life at Cincinnati or Cleveland State.
The Sunahara family took a vacation to Hawaii in 2016, the home state of Reed Sunahara, who now was coming off his first year coaching the West Virginia women’s volleyball team.
Rex joined the trip prepared to deliver the news of his intention to enter the transfer portal.
He brought these thoughts to his father. Reed then asked his son a question.
“Why don’t you just go to West Virginia and see what you can do?” Reed asked.
However, there was no scholarship offer for him. The only way Sunahara would suit up for the Mountaineers was by walking on. It was either that or become his father’s volleyball team manager.
He took a leap of faith and showed up at West Virginia’s 6 a.m. football tryout. Reed drove him there. And in the end, Sunahara was the last one standing and accepted an offer to walk on.
“There were three of us that got picked from there, and I think I was the only one that really finished,” Sunahara said. “It was kind of crazy.”
Mountaineer friendship
Sunahara was a Mountaineer, but he wasn’t the starting long snapper.
That job belonged to Nick Meadows going into Year 5 of coach Dana Holgorsen’s tenure.
Sunahara, however, didn’t shy away. He took to being Meadows’ backup and waited his turn, while also learning from the starter.
“The kid worked his a–off every single day and that was the competition,” Sunahara said of Meadows. “He was going to beat you, and it was just a matter of how he was going to beat you.”
Meadows in turn also realized Sunahara’s potential as a long snapper.
“I think honestly, probably within the first week of him being there,” Meadows said. “I could see his potential, one, with his size and ability, but two, with his work ethic and consistency. I could see that he had it in him.”
Meadows led by example with his preparation for perfection. He made Sunahara his pupil, and showed him what it’d take to make it in Morgantown.
“Every single day, I wouldn’t go off the field until I had, say for example, 10 to 20 perfect snaps in a row,” Meadows said. “If there was one bad one, I had to restart and I would have to do 10 more. I wouldn’t leave the field.”
Through their competition, they built a bond.
“He held that position to a standard,” Sunahara said. “He held our entire group to a standard. That is what I wanted to be. It was what I wanted to accomplish … I wouldn’t have been able to do it without him.”
Meadows graduated after the 2017 season, and it was Sunahara’s turn. He became a fan favorite, played the whole season and landed four tackles on special teams.
To some extent, he thought that was it.
“I never thought about playing in the pros,” Sunahara said. “I was like, ‘I just want to play varsity football and then I want to play on Saturdays, move on and then just continue to do that.’ ”
Little did he know where his next chapter would lead him.
Big leagues calling
Sunahara didn’t know he was on the NFL radar.
“I was told by one of my coaches, ‘You’re getting a lot of looks’. And I was like, ‘Looks for what?’ …
“ ‘A lot of people think that you can play in the NFL,’” Sunahara said.
He capped his senior season with invites to the 2020 NFLPA Collegiate All-Star Game and 2020 Hula Bowl All-Star Game, and was a semifinalist for the Patrick Mannelly Award, given to the nation’s top long snapper.
However, this wouldn’t lead to a selection in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Practice squad stints with the Dolphins and Steelers didn’t lead to much. Sunahara joined the XFL’s San Antonio Brahmas for the 2023 season, before receiving a training camp invite from Pittsburgh that same year.
That led to nothing. Sunahara returned to San Antonio the next year as the team transitioned to the UFL, but he wasn’t playing much.
Sunahara found himself back home in Bay Village and faced the thought of life after football.
“I didn’t hear anything,” Sunahara said. “I was literally sitting at home … I didn’t hear anything until August.”
Dreams turned reality
Sunahara geared up for his first day at Cleveland’s House of Blues in August 2024.
He was short on cash and opportunities from the pros, and looked to make some money in the meantime.
“I guess you would call it a stagehand … just break down and set up stages for the concerts at the House of Blues,” Sunahara said. “And that was really about it. (I) was just going to do that at nights and figure it out from there.”
Then the Browns called.
Hughlett hadn’t missed a single game since becoming Cleveland’s starting long snapper in 2015, but now he was hurt and they needed somebody else.
Sunahara signed on Aug. 8.
But this wasn’t just any team. This was the Browns. Sunahara grew up a fanatic. He even attended games while he was trying to go pro.
In 2021, when cornerback Denzel Ward logged a 99-yard pick-six in Cleveland’s Week 9 road win over Cincinnati, Sunahara was there.
In 2022, when the Browns suffered a Christmas Eve loss to the Saints in what became the coldest regular-season home game in franchise history, Sunahara was in the nosebleed seats with friends.
He now had the chance of a lifetime to play in the orange and brown.
Replacing familiarity
Sunahara was part of a series of bookkeeping roster moves during the fall of 2024. He’d be a practice squad member, then get waived, then get placed back on the roster, and so on.
Sunahara wasn’t signed to the active roster until Oct. 9, after Hughlett was placed on the injured list with a rib injury.
It was Sunahara’s 28th birthday, and he received the news from Browns special teams coach Bubba Ventrone.
“I kind of knew that it was happening,” Sunahara said. “Bubba texted me and was like, ‘Hey, are you ready to go?’ Just replied, ‘Hell yeah,’ and was ready to go.”
Sunahara’s first career NFL start was in Week 6 versus the eventual Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles.
“It was scary,” Sunahara said. “It was one of those things where you try to take it all in, but also realize you got a job to do. It was surreal.”
This also marked the changing of the guard.
Sunahara was Cleveland’s starting long snapper the rest of the 2024 season. Hughlett has not played another down for the Browns and was released after the season ended.
Hughlett had two years remaining on a four-year, $5.7 million contract extension signed in October 2022. Dating back to 2015, he had played in 152 straight regular-season games and was the team’s second-longest-tenured member behind left guard Joel Bitonio.
The Browns were taking a chance with Sunahara, who understood what came with replacing Hughlett.
“Charlie was one or is still one of the best to ever play the position,” Sunahara said. “The fact that I was able to be here with him and learn from him every day, was something that is part of the reason that I’m able to do this. He’s a pro’s pro.”
Carving his own path
He has stepped up to the challenge in 2025 and contributed to some of the Browns’ top highlights this season.
That includes Andre Szmyt’s 53-yard game-winning kick in Week 3, when Sunahara made the pivotal snap for Corey Bojorquez to place down for Szmyt.
Pro Football Focus has given him an 84.8 overall special teams grade this season, the best among all NFL long snappers.
He’s had seven special teams tackles, including one on Chimere Dike, the NFL’s top kickoff returner, in the Browns’ Week 14 loss to Tennessee.
With his first full complete season coming to an end, Sunahara is just enjoying the ride.
He sometimes catches himself looking up to the nosebleeds where he once sat watching the team he plays for now.
“Corey and Andre get tired of me talking about that stuff,” Sunahara said. “I just remember sitting up there, they’re like, ‘Cool’. They get annoyed with it, but it’s fun, it’s a part of my journey and story.”
But Sunahara also looks to carve out his own path as the franchise long snapper, for his hometown squad.
“Make my own way and make this position my own and do things a little bit different,” Sunahara said. “If it works, it works. I’m just excited to be able to continue to forge that path.”