CLEVELAND, Ohio - Terrelle Pryor returns Sunday to his hometown of Pittsburgh, where he lived in motels as a kid and got mocked for wearing the same clothes day after day.

He grew up in the tiny town of Jeannette, where the population has dwindled by about half in recent years to 9,654. About 40 minutes southeast of Pittsburgh, Jeannette was once known as The Glass City for the seven glass factories in town.

They're now down to just one, Jeannette Specialty Glass, which was owned by Pryor's surrogate father, Teddy Sarniak, who died in 2012.

Sarniak passed just six days before Pryor's biological father Craig, who died at the age of 44 from a rare neurological disorder that had him confined to a wheelchair.

"It was tough,'' Pryor, who will face the Steelers in the finale Sunday, said of losing both men in the same week.

But in his early years, Pryor was raised mostly by his mom, Thomasina, known as Tony to most. Craig left when Pryor was about 6, and they remained mostly estranged until years later.

"It was pretty much my mom, me, my brother and sister,'' said Pryor. "We were moving in out of hotels and stuff like that. We couldn't afford a house.''

Thomasina often had three or four jobs at a time, "along with dealing with my crazy self and my brother.''

Pryor recalls that times were so tough "we might've picked the lock just to stay in the hotel for free, I don't know. I just know we were in hotels a lot.''

Thomasina had Tyrone when she was 16 or 17, and Terrelle came along two years later. Tamika is four years younger than Terrelle.

"It was hard for my mom because she was so young and trying to take care of three kids,'' said Pryor. "It was hard to keep up with the rent. You owe your landlord for three, four months and you can't pay it so you're out.''

At times, when they were homeless, they'd pile into Grandma Marlene's house -- Craig's mom -- along with other members of their extended family.

"She had a big house, but she had a lot of siblings and some of the kids from the other parents were staying there as well,'' said Pryor. "There was a lot going on. A lot of kids that deal with that as well, so I'm not complaining.''

As if Thomasina didn't have enough on her plate, Tyrone was always in some kind of trouble, and got kicked out of high school.

"He was an awesome athlete," Pryor said. He had a lot of offers and went to Delaware State, but got kicked out of there too. He's doing well now, living in Pittsburgh and working construction, but I watched him struggle.''

Often, Pryor struggled along with him.

"We fought all the time,'' said Pryor. "He was very aggressive. Very hot-tempered. We were both hotheads, but I learned to control it. My temper is like zero to 1,000 in a millisecond. I can still get there, but I've learned to manage it.''

Pryor attributes the anger to their broken home and meager existence.

"Psychology says when you don't have everything you want and need, and you don't have the parents around all the time, it's tough to really stay up,'' he said. "It's hard to be successful. It really breaks that stuff down.''

Despite little money, Thomasina found a way to feed the kids, including two famished athletes.

"We'd get fed before the rent and all of that,'' Pryor said. "My brother was big. He ate cereal by the big salad bowls with a big scoop. A box was gone after two servings with him.''

Despite admiration for his athletic prowess, Pryor also got made fun of at school for his clothes.

"I couldn't dress well,'' he said. "I'd wear the same stuff probably two, three times a week.''



Teddy to the rescue

They say it takes a village to raise a child, and Jeannette rose to the occasion when it came to Pryor. Some prominent businessmen recognized that he had enormous talent, but lacked money, support and a father figure.

They introduced him to Teddy Sarniak, who took Pryor under his wing and helped raise him.

"They said to Teddy, 'Watch over him and do what you can, help him out because this kid's going to be special one day,''' recalled Pryor. "I was going into fifth grade. Ever since then, he pretty much took me under his wing and taught me manners. He taught me how to dress. He taught me how to handle myself on a daily basis.

"He owned a glass factory and did some water pipe stuff from overseas. I spent time at his house for awhile. It was just really me and him. We'd go to restaurants. I finally met his wife when I got into high school.''

Pryor says Sarniak was a kind-hearted soul "who didn't need anything from me. He knew I had talent and he knew one day I was going to make it. He did anything he could to help me, and that's stuck with me to this day. He taught me it's not always about yourself and it's not always about your family. It's also about helping others.''

Pryor's mentors helped him avoid temptation.

"A lot of Jeannette kids were selling drugs and going to jail,'' Pryor said. "They weren't the hardest streets, but there was a lot going on.''

By the time he was in the midget leagues, it was evident that Pryor was special.

"It was just pure domination,'' said Pryor. "It wasn't even close.''

With his mom still struggling to make ends meet, Pryor moved for awhile to nearby West Mifflin, but the neighborhood was rough. During a hearing to bring him back to Jeannette to live with relatives, he told the story of hearing gunfire in the streets and hiding in the closet until his mom came home.

"I broke down in tears at that hearing,'' recalled his high school quarterbacks coach Roy Hall, now Jeannette's head football coach.

Pryor ultimately lived with his godfather during high school, but also crashed on the couches of his best friends plenty of nights.

High school phenom

Pryor, who sprouted from 5-10 to 6-3 in eighth grade, was so outstanding in basketball and football that fans flocked from all over Westmoreland County to watch him play.

"There was no comparison between Terrelle and everyone else,'' said Jeannette athletic director Anthony DeNunzio. "I don't know if we'll ever see anything like it again. It was standing-room-only at the football games, and every basketball game was sold out.''

Pryor became the first Pennsylvania player to pass and rush for more than 4,000 yards, and led Jeannette to a state championship as a senior. In his junior and senior seasons, they went 30-2.

In basketball, he also led the team to a state championship and a 53-9 mark his final two years, scoring a school-record 2,285 career points. He was recruited by plenty of big-time schools to play basketball as well as football.

"I've never coached anybody like him and I don't think I ever will again,'' said Hall. "He was a man amongst boys.''

Hall set up the school's weight room in his garage, where Pryor and sometimes up to 70 kids trained on a regular basis.

"Terrelle wanted to be in my 300-club, so he bench-pressed 300 pounds by his senior year,'' said Hall. "No one outworked him.''

DeNunzio recalls Jeannette devoting a full-time staffer to handle the parade of college coaches coming to watch Pryor, and Hall remembers meeting the biggest names in the game.

"Joe Paterno came down off the mountain to recruit Terrelle,'' Hall said. "Chip Kelly came from Oregon and Nick Saban came from Alabama.''

Michigan even offered Pryor's best friend Jason Marcus a scholarship to land him.

"But Terrelle liked Jim Tressel and better than any of them,'' Hall said.



No regrets

The No. 1-ranked quarterback coming out of high school, Pryor arrived at Ohio State in 2008 to a chilly reception from the seniors who had come back to win a national championship.

They had already lost two and had redemption on their minds. Immediately, Pryor was seen as a cocky, arrogant, hotshot who rubbed seniors like Alex Boone and Brian Hartline the wrong way.

What's more he got special treatment from Tressel, who viewed him as the savior. When Ohio State lost to Texas in Fiesta Bowl in the last minute to let another championship slip away, the seniors' dislike for the dual-threat quarterback deepened.

They resented him even more when he was suspended for the first five games of his senior season for selling championship rings, jerseys and awards, and receiving improper benefits from the owner of a tattoo parlor. Ultimately, Tressel resigned in the wake of the scandal.

But Pryor, who said he needed the money for his mother and sister who had no heat in their apartment, said he'd do it over again.

"Yeah, absolutely,'' he said. "I did it to help my mom.''

What's more, "it got me into the position I'm in right now. God works in mysterious ways and gives you lesson in life. Sometimes, stuff like that happens for a reason.''

The scandal, which prevented Pryor from setting foot on Ohio State's campus for five years, didn't damage his relationship with Tressel, with whom he remains close.

"When Terrelle had his Pro Day here at a local high school here because he couldn't have it at Ohio State, Jim Tressel came with him,'' recalled Hall.

Before and after almost every Browns game, Tressel and Pryor text back and forth.

"We talk about the game and life,'' said Pryor. "I love him like a father.''



Committed to QB

A supplemental pick of the Raiders in 2011, Pryor still believes he can be a winning NFL quarterback if given the chance.

In 2013, he went 3-6 with the Raiders, earning three of their four victories. He passed for 1,798 yards and rushed for 576.

"My first five games with the Raiders were phenomenal,'' he said. "Two or three categories I was second behind Peyton Manning for awhile. In the sixth or seventh week sprained my MCL. It takes time to throw the ball down the field. If you don't have a lot of explosive passes, it's hard to win.''

In Oakland, Pryor became close to Hue Jackson, who drafted him. He also absorbed everything he could from Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart.

Against his hometown Steelers, he ran 93 yards for a TD, the longest run in NFL history by a quarterback. But he was traded in April of 2014 to Seattle for a seventh-round pick, and waived in the final cuts after camp.

"I had a good preseason at quarterback and ran the ball well,'' he said. "It made me mad that they chose Tarvaris Jackson over me. That's when I realized it was more than just a game. It was political.''

Seahawks GM John Schneider tried to switch Pryor to receiver.

"He just wasn't interested in the thought of it,'' coach Pete Carroll told cleveland.com in an email. "We thought as coaches that he'd be incredible at it. So none of us are surprised, we're all just disappointed that we weren't able to convince him earlier, because he would've been a fantastic player."

Carroll said he didn't press it.

"You can make them, but you want a guy to buy in so he'll make the most of it,'' he said.

Pryor admitted he had no desire.

"They just knew how physically gifted I was,'' he said. "In preseason vs. the Chargers, I faked it and ran like 58 yards past everybody. They saw how fast I was, how lean my body was, like a deer running. They had Russell Wilson and he wasn't going anywhere.''

Rather than give up his QB dreams, Pryor sat out of football that year. The Chiefs signed him in January of 2015, but waived him in May.

"I felt I was better than Alex Smith and their backup (Chase Daniel),'' said Pryor. "I felt if I had played there, I could've done well.''

A receiver is born

Jackson, then Bengals offensive coordinator, gave Pryor a shot at quarterback in the spring of 2015, but cut him after five weeks. He didn't have the heart to shatter his QB dreams, but had a mutual friend Craig Austin, another mentor of Pryor's, broach the receiver subject after he was cut.

"He felt one way and I felt another way,'' said Pryor. "Even when I got released from Seattle, they said I just needed to play more football.''

Pryor's agents, Drew and Jason Rosenhaus, felt receiver was his best shot to stay in the league. Finally he agreed, "because I knew the game was all political. It wasn't that I couldn't play QB. You have to be in the right situation. Some of these QBs in the league aren't that good. A lot of them are hidden by a good defense.''

But he didn't go kicking and screaming into his new position when the Browns claimed him on waivers.

"I just attacked it,'' he said. "I knew I had to be on point. If I didn't make it, I might be out of the league right now.''

Besides, he knew he could do it.

"I played receiver my freshman year in high school,'' he said. "I think I had like eight touchdowns that season.''

He worked with Randy Moss who told him, "After a year you'll be able to solidify yourself as a top talent.''

Pryor is convinced he would've been good last year had he not pulled the hamstring in camp. Instead the Browns waived him shortly after the final cuts, and he he went back to Pittsburgh to train and spend as much time as possible with his now 2-year-old son, Terrelle II.

"It was a blessing,'' he said. "I bonded with my son and we're very close.''

While he sat out, his hometown Steelers didn't give him a look, and the Patriots and Jets failed to sign him after tryouts.

"I knew once somebody gave me a shot, it was going to be all she wrote,'' said Pryor.

Heading into Sunday's game against the Steelers, Pryor is 87 yards shy of 1,000 in his first year at receiver -- despite a revolving door at quarterback. He'll be a free agent after the season, and will either hit paydirt with the Browns or another team. He wants to stay in Cleveland, but knows as well anyone that it's a business.

"I believe God closes doors and moves things out of the way for a reason,'' he said. "He kept pushing me in this direction. It's the position I was meant to play.''

And once he gets the big, new contract, he'll fulfill a promise made to his mom many years ago in Jeannette.

"When I was a little kid, I always told her I'd get her a house right behind mine,'' he said. "And that's what I'm going to do.''