After arrest, Edwards remembered love of being Jet
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. - Thoughts kept racing through Braylon Edwards' head as he sat in the passenger seat of a black Cadillac Escalade during the trek from Manhattan to the Jets' training facility.
Edwards had just been set free after his DWI arrest in Manhattan early Tuesday morning and was beginning to come to grips with how one bad mistake can cost him his reputation - and freedom.
"A lot was going through my mind just in the fact that I have to keep reiterating the fact of how much I love playing here," Edwards said Wednesday. "So on the way over here, I was just thinking about being a Jet versus being in my last situation, and the groundwork that I've laid in terms of showing them what type of person I am - them giving me a chance to show them what type of person I am and them knowing that."
Edwards appeared remorseful Wednesday, but didn't go into any specifics about the incident, saying he can't talk about it because it's a pending legal matter. The plan remains for the wide receiver to play in Sunday night's game against the Dolphins, but he won't start and his playing time won't be determined until the Jets finish gathering all the facts. They still want to get a copy of the police report and do more investigating.
"I'll know before we play the game," Rex Ryan said.
Because of language in the collective-bargaining agreement, the Jets couldn't suspend Edwards and they aren't allowed to deactivate him. But he said he wasn't going to fight a stiffer penalty if that's what the Jets decide.
"I would not. I respect Mike Tannenbaum and Rex Ryan," said Edwards, who would lose a $30,000 roster bonus if he was deactivated because he wouldn't be on the 45-man roster. "I have a whole lot of respect for them as well as Woody Johnson and if that was the decision that they wanted to make, then I would support it wholeheartedly and I wouldn't fight it."
Other NFL players who've been arrested for their first DUI offense over the last year - like the Dolphins' Ronnie Brown - have had a similar fate to what the Jets are doing with Edwards: let the legal system run its course and the NFL figure out the punishment.
Edwards, who spent 12 hours in police custody, said he typically uses a car service, and that Monday was just the third time he's ever driven in Manhattan.
Ryan was so infuriated with the latest off-the-field hiccup that he addressed the team before practice, explaining that he's had enough.
"I'm tired of the embarrassment to our owner and this organization and let's just end it," Ryan said. "Let's stop it. Whatever it is, however severe or minor, we don't need to be that team. This team works too hard and everything else to be looked at in this light."
Ryan's message was well-received. Now, it's up to the players to learn from it.
"It's just a situation where he got caught up," Darrelle Revis said. "It's too late to be out there. It's what? Five-thirty in the morning? That's just too late."
When asked if he thought his ordeal was a black eye for the Jets, Edwards raised a few eyebrows with his response.
"I don't understand the black eye that this would put on the organization, because this isn't a representation what this organization is about, this isn't what Rex Ryan, Mike Tannenbaum and Woody [Johnson] teach," he said. "This is a situation that I am in, that I put myself in. So I don't see how it could be a black eye for them. It would be more so a black eye for myself if anything."
