Braylon Edwards

Braylon Jamel Edwards (born February 21, 1983) is an American football wide receiver who is currently a free agent. He was drafted by the Cleveland Browns third overall in the 2005 NFL Draft. He has also played for the New York Jets and San Francisco 49ers.

He played college football at Michigan, where he won the Fred Biletnikoff Award, the Chicago Tribune Silver Football as Big Ten Conference MVP, and became a consensus All-American. Along the way, he became the first receiver in Big Ten history to have three consecutive 1000-yard seasons and the third in NCAA Division I-A. He set most of the current Michigan Wolverines football receiving records.

He played four plus seasons with the Browns where he earned a Pro Bowl selection following the 2007 NFL season. Outside of football, in Cleveland, he was notable for both his legal troubles and his philanthropy. He was arrested for numerous speeding violations, but has upheld his commitment to sponsor 100 Cleveland area youths' educations. He followed that up his time in Cleveland with nearly two full seasons with the Jets.

Early years
During his three active high school years at Bishop Gallagher HS, Edwards played a variety of positions and made 63 receptions for 740 yards and eight touchdowns. Edwards followed in his father Stan Edwards's footsteps to Michigan where he played 2001–2004. During his senior year Edwards set Michigan season records for receptions (97) and yards (1,330) and career records for 252 receptions, 3,541 yards, and 39 touchdowns, a Big Ten record.

Edwards also set the Michigan record for the most games with 100 or more receiving yards (17) and won the Fred Biletnikoff Award given to the nation's top wide receiver and was named the Big Ten Conference MVP and was also a 2004 consensus All-America selection.

Edwards is the only wide receiver in Big Ten history and the third in NCAA Division I-A annals to gain 1,000 or more receiving yards in three consecutive years. Edwards concluded his college career by recording three touchdown catches in the 2005 Rose Bowl against Texas, tying a record for that game. Edwards' Michigan career did not entirely eclipse Jack Clancy's who held the Michigan single game receptions yardage mark at the time with 197, this record is now held by Roy Roundtree who had a 246 yard game against Illinois in 2010, while Edwards remains third with his 189 yard effort in 2004. Edwards also fell just short of eclipsing Clancy's 10-game single season records of 76 receptions and 1,077 yards by recording 76 and 1,049 in his first 10 in 2004. Edwards also ran track at Michigan and his indoor 200 meter time of 21.81 seconds was the third fastest in school history when he completed his career.

2005 NFL Draft
Edwards was selected in the first round (3rd overall) in the 2005 NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns.

2005
Edwards began his rookie season as Cleveland's third wide receiver – he would have started higher, but a hold-out caused him to miss the beginning of training camp. Early in the season Edwards revealed that he had a staph infection, and missed a few weeks as a result of it. He moved into the starting lineup by midseason. He made his NFL debut versus the Cincinnati Bengals on September 11 and caught his first NFL touchdown at the Green Bay Packers on September 18. He amassed 512 receiving yards and three touchdowns before suffering a season ending knee injury. Edwards had surgery in the offseason, and while rehabilitating bonded with Kellen Winslow II. Both were determined to make a full and speedy recovery.

2006
Edwards, like Winslow, had a successful rehabilitation that enabled him to be ready to play in the team's opening game in 2006. Edwards became the top receiver for the Browns after an injury to Joe Jurevicius that season. Edwards totaled 61 receptions for 884 yards and six touchdowns on the season. At the end of the season, Edwards announced he would give $500,000 to the University of Michigan for a scholarship endowment for football players. Edwards also had an altercation with Charlie Frye on the sidelines of a game in 2006. He said "and they're talking about video games." Edwards continued to make headlines that season when he called out Mike Minter, Chris Gamble, Ricky Manning and other defensive backs of the Carolina Panthers. Additionally, he attended the annual Michigan-Ohio State rivalry game after being advised not to go by several veteran captains. Edwards was late getting back from Columbus and was late to a team meeting.

2007
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. Edwards broke franchise records for receiving yardage with 1289 receiving yards compared to Slaughter's record of 1236 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.

2008
Like the Browns, Edwards had high expectations in 08. 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 Braylon led the NFL in dropped passes with 16. He caught only three touchdown passes.

2009
On October 7, Edwards was traded to the New York Jets for wide receiver Chansi Stuckey, linebacker Jason Trusnik and a third and fifth round draft pick in the 2010 NFL Draft. Edwards cited a need for a "fresh start" following the deal's completion. In 12 games for New York, Braylon had 35 catches for 541 yards and four touchdowns. Braylon had his first taste of the post-season in the 2009–10 NFL playoffs. In the Jets first two games, Braylon only had 4 catches for 56 yards but in the AFC Championship against the Indianapolis Colts, Braylon caught a 80 yard touchdown pass to give the Jets their first points of the game. He finished the game with 2 catches for 100 yards and a touchdown as the Jets lost 30-17.

2010
Braylon Edwards remained with the New York Jets in 2010. He had 904 receiving yards for New York.

San Francisco 49ers
On August 4, 2011, Edwards signed a one-year contract worth $1 million with the San Francisco 49ers. The contract would have increased to $3.5 million had Edwards recorded a 90-catch or Pro Bowl season. He was waived on December 27 without having achieved either of these.

Legal issues
Edwards has often been in trouble with the law as he has been pulled over several times over the last eight years for speeding violations. The most recent of which was in October 2008 when he was pulled over for driving 120 mph in a 65 mph zone.

Two days before being traded to the New York Jets, on October 5, 2009, Edwards reportedly punched Edward Givens, a local party promoter, in the face at 2:30 A.M. outside of the View Ultralounge & Nightclub. Givens, who is an acquaintance of LeBron James, alleged that Edwards was jealous of James' success thus prompting Edwards' attack. This prompted James to call the incident "childish." On October 26, 2009, Edwards was charged with misdemeanor assault and later plead no contest to the charge of aggravated assault on January 12, 2010. Edwards was given a suspended 180-day jail sentence, was fined $1,000 and placed on inactive probation. Though Edwards offered no explanation or apology for his actions, he reportedly regretted the entire ordeal according to his lawyer. The NFL did not suspend Edwards for his actions.

On September 21, 2010, Edwards was arrested on a drunken driving charge in New York early in the morning. He was originally pulled over for having excessively tinted windows on his Range Rover. Police smelled alcohol on Edwards who blew 0.16—twice the legal limit. He was arrested on a DWI charge. He is still on probation for the altercation that occurred in October 2009.

Philanthrophy
In 2007, Edwards pledged to 100 Cleveland high school students that, if they maintained grade point averages at 2.5 or higher and performed 15 hours of community service, he would pay for their college tuition, an offer valued at $1 million. On May 25, 2011, it was widely reported that Edwards announced he was keeping his pledge. Sporting News website quoted Edwards as saying:


 * "As the 2nd most hated man in Clev & a man of my word, today I will honor a promise made to 100 students in Cleveland years ago," Edwards tweeted. "The last of my Advance 100 students will graduate from my program and head off to college on scholarships that I will provide them with. Guys, enjoy and embrace your new beginnings and remember your promise to me, to reach back & help someone else along the way."

The scholarships are worth $10,000 each and fulfill a promise Edwards made to 100 eighth-graders in the Cleveland area in 2007 as long as they continued to meet the academic and community service requirements. According to published reports, Edwards actually selected 101 students. In an interview Edwards said:


 * "This was not a tax write-off. This was something we wanted to do the right way and something I was going to be a part of until the end. I know that some of these kids could have easily steered off the right path or maybe wouldn't have been able to go to college at all without this, and I just hope someday they pay it forward."

The pledge was through a program called the "ADVANCE 100 Program", an educational initiative established by the Braylon Edwards Foundation in May, 2007.