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Tough journey from Bakersfield will fuel Browns’ Cody Kessler in NFL debut

BEREA: News that Cody Kessler would make his NFL debut Sunday was perhaps minutes old when Shawn Johnson called.

To Browns rookie quarterback Kessler, that was no surprise.

Besides his parents, Don and Christie, and younger brother Dylan, Johnson might be Kessler’s biggest supporter, although not for the usual reasons.

While Kessler and Johnson played together at Centennial High School in Bakersfield, Calif., the Kesslers took Johnson in to live with them when the boys were sophomores.

The family had tried it once before when Kessler was in middle school, Kessler said Wednesday. That didn’t work out as Kessler’s friend decided to return home.