Former Jets receiver Braylon Edwards rescued an 80-year-old man from an assault Friday inside a YMCA locker room.
Police are lauding Edwards as a life-saver after he stepped into a fight that resulted in the arrest of a 25-year-old man who allegedly was beating up the elderly man in Farmington Hills, Mich., according to Detroit’s local NBC affiliate.
Edwards, who stopped by the YMCA for a workout, said he heard an argument break out about four rows behind him over music playing too loudly.
“I’m not paying attention and I was just handling my business,” Edwards told WDIV-TV. “The noise escalates and then you can hear some pushing and shoving, and you know what fighting sounds like. Start to hear some tussling, start to hear some fists, but once I hear a thud, that’s when I got up and turned around.
“And then I see the guy and I think he’s reaching for a phone underneath the victim,” Edwards added. “He grabs the back of the victim’s head by the hair, and he was about to slam it down on the counter. I grabbed him and subdued him.”
Edwards, 41, hasn’t played in the NFL since 2012.
He had 238 catches for 1,570 yards and 11 touchdowns in 31 games over parts of three seasons with the Jets late in his career.
The incident about 30 minutes from where Edwards grew up.
The alleged perpetrator ran from the scene, and police locked down several nearby schools as a precaution until the arrest was made, according to the report.
“I didn’t know it was that serious,” Edwards said. “I mean the victim probably had a serious concussion by nature, but It wasn’t until I talked to the detective down in Farmington who told me that [it was a life-threatening situation] if I didn’t step in. But at the end of the day that’s what you do.”
Why did Edwards get involved?
“People go to work out, they have a good time, they live to be 80 years and this isn’t how they expect for something to maybe take their life,” Edwards said. “My mom, my grandmother, my father – in that moment, when you come back home, these are the people you think about.”
The 80-year-old man is going to survive, per the report, and Edwards hopes to meet him once he is released from the hospital.