The Michigan Wolverines just won the national title, but both positive and negative stories about their program were at the forefront of college football all season.
Today, their fans should be proud.
On Friday, 7-year veteran and former MIchigan Wolverines star WR Braylon Edwards who earned All-Pro and Pro Bowl honors in his second NFL season with the Cleveland Browns in 2007 found himself in the middle of a terrifying situation and sprung to action without thinking twice, saving the life of an 80-year-old man on Friday.
After a prolific collegiate career for the Michigan Wolverines as the only Big Ten WR to gain 1,000 yards receiving in three consecutive seasons,
Edwards was a hot commodity entering the 2005 NFL Draft coming off a senior season where he won the Fred Biletnikoff Award given to the nation’s top receiver, was awarded the Chicago Tribune Silver Football as the Big Ten Conference’s most valuable player, and was recognized as a unanimous first-team All-American.
The Cleveland Browns selected Braylon Edwards with the third overall pick in the 2005 NFL Draft and he went on to put together a 7-year NFL career with stops with the Jets, 49ers and Seahawks before retiring ahead of the 2013 season.
Edwards had a breakout season in 2007 and made his first Pro Bowl, becoming the first Browns receiver to make the Pro Bowl since Webster Slaughter in 1989.
The former Michigan Wolverines star broke franchise records for receiving yardage with 1,289 receiving yards compared to Slaughter’s record of 1,236 in 1989 and receiving touchdowns with 16 compared to Gary Collins’s 13 in 1963. Edwards’ 16 touchdowns was also second in the league behind only Randy Moss who set an NFL record with 23 touchdowns.
Edwards publicly made a bet with Michael Phelps that he would catch 17 touchdowns in 2008. However, Edwards and the Browns struggled during the entire year. The Browns finished at 4–12, and he led the NFL in dropped passes with 23. He caught only three touchdown passes.
Braylon Edwards was traded to the New York Jets as the Browns looked to rebuild following their rough 2008 campaign, and the former Michigan Wolverines star started 12 games for New York, recording 35 catches for 541 yards and four touchdowns.
Edwards had his first taste of the post-season in the 2009–10 NFL playoffs. In the Jets first two games, he only had 4 catches for 56 yards but in the AFC Championship against the Indianapolis Colts, he caught an 80-yard touchdown pass to give the Jets their first points of the game.
Edwards finished the game with 2 catches for 100 yards and a touchdown as the Jets lost 30–17.
The former Michigan standout landed with the Jets and put together another solid NFL campaign in 2010 with 53 receptions for 904 yards and seven touchdowns.
Following 2010, Edwards had brief stints with the 49ers, Seahawks and a final year back with the Jets but could never re-capture the magic he had early in his career and ultimately retired ahead of the 2013 season.
Former NFL And Michigan Wolverines WR Braylon Edwards Intervenes In Fight, Potentially Saves Elder Man’s Life
According to Local 4 News in Detroit, the former Michigan star WR played an instrumental role in saving the life of an 80-year-old man who was getting brutally attacked by a 25-year-old in the locker room of a local gym,
Edwards recounted the events with Local 4 News:
Wow: Former #NFL player Braylon Edwards saved an 80-year-old man's life after he was attacked in a locker room by a 25y/o man, police say.
What a hero 👏❤️
(via @Local4News)pic.twitter.com/fWPTRxSofG
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) March 3, 2024
“I basically walked into the locker room after working out, hear some noise like four rows behind me, someone arguing about music, someone playing music too loud, so I’m not paying attention it’s not my business,” the former NFL WR said.
“The noise escalates, you can start to hear some pushing and shoving, you know what fighting sounds like. So I can hear some tussling and start to hear some fists, and once I heard a thud, that’s what got me up and got me to turn around.”
Braylon Edwards then came onto a graphic scene as a 25-year-old man was beating an 80-year-old man and the former NFL veteran and Michigan star stepped in out of instinct.
“And then I see the guy reaching for a phone underneath the victim, he was about to grab the victim by the back of the head and slam his head on the counter, I grabbed him and subdued him,” the Michigan Wolverines alum said.
When asked if Edwards realized the 80-year-old victim could have been killed, he said he didin’t realize in the moment but just reacted.
“I didn’t realize how serious it was, I felt like he probably had a concussion, but then Detective Jacobs down in Farmington told me if I wasn’t there how bad it could have been. But that’s what you do, people go to work out, have a good time, they live 80 years and this isn’t how they expect, for someone to maybe take their life.”
Edwards said the incident made him think of his own family.
“My mom, my mother, my grandmother, when you come back home, these are the people you think about in that moment. “
Ultimately the suspect was taken into custody and charges are pending. The victim remained in the hospital as of the time of the report, but he was expected to survive the terrifying incident.
Braylon Edwards had a few off-the-field issues and legal disputes during his up-and-down NFL career, but the former Michigan Wolverines dominant receiver proved his character in a major way, stepping in to help a complete stranger in need.