Braylon Edwards (Official Thread)
Should this have been turned into a blog? I think its a pretty cool article, but wasn't sure whether I should post it here or there.
Braylon Edwards interview on The Big Show on 1460 The Fan (April 27, 4:00 pm)
MP3 link to recording (Braylon segment is at 23:00 into the broadcast)
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BE - Braylon Edwards, KH - Kirk Herbstreit, JR - Jeff Rimmer
BE: Before we do any interviewing, I was a little skeptical about Ohio State people off the field, I didn't know too much about how they work... but after meeting Kirk Herbstreit I have a lot of respect for Ohio State people.
KH: Well I appreciate you saying that man. Have you had a chance to get into ohio yet? You probably are looking around after all those years of going up against Ohio State, fans yelling at you in that corner coming on and off the field, and all of a sudden you come to Ohio and all of a sudden, hopefully, fans are embracing you.
BE: Definitely, it was weird, you know, I had my first press conference down in Cleveland. They threw out a lot of Ohio State questions, but to be honest I think it's gonna be a well-working situation. Yeah they've yelled at me for the last four years and everything, but now I've got a chance to be an Ohioan and a Clevelander... I think it's gonna be a well-working relationship.
KH: I watched the piece with you on Sportscenter, and what an interesting thing for you and all the other players to every year go through this experience. You at least had your dad, so you had at least a little better idea of what to expect than maybe some of the other guys. But just kinda sum up the last week and a half for you and how your life has changed completely.
BE: It's been crazy, I've gone through a lot of things and a lot of different scenarios, the possibility of going 1... 2... ending up going 3, it's been crazy. All the media things I've done, the people following me... In college, especially at a big school like Ohio State or Michigan, you're under a lot of pressure, but now you're under a lot more pressure because the media and everybody in the public has access to your life 24/7. You're always under the microscope and being scrutinized, so you have to mind your p's and q's at all times.
KH: Knowing you, the way you like pressure... you know you have to be mature off the field, but off the field you probably enjoy that pressure, I would think.
BE: Definitely, I believe that's how you become great. Being out there and letting it surround you at all times... thriving in those pressure situations. Whether it's playing Ohio State down in the Horseshoe, or playing in the Rose Bowl, being a captain or leader on your team, you have to be a pressure seeker.
KH: You know the thing that drives me nuts with the draft, and I've never experienced it the way you have... but just watching what they do to each guy. I've followed you guys for three to four years, so I'd like to think I have a pretty good idea of what you can and can't do, and all of a sudden these draft experts are gonna have to find something wrong with everybody. You can never be the perfect guy coming out of college football... to have to live with that and hear everybody say what's good and bad about you and not be able to do anything about it other than listen, how difficult was that to deal with?
BE: It was definitely hard, you know, because you feel as tho you worked for four years, especially with a guy like myself or Cedric Benson, we've pretty much defined our craft at the collegiate level. We've worked out all the kinks and got everything out, and then you have these guys like Mel Kiper or draft analysts and say well this guy doesn't do this, this guy doesn't run fast enough or this guy doesn't jump high. I don't think you can honestly measure the way a guy plays on the field without film. Film does not lie. They put too much into these 40 times and vertical jumps and a lot of quality athletes get shafted out of a chance to get drafted or be a part of an organization right away because of all of these particulars that they place out there from time to time.
KH: You know, some of those things I heard them say about you I thought, 'Well maybe that was true back in 2001 or 2002 when he was still young and still maturing.' But watching you as a junior and especially as a senior, it was like some of the things they were saying were falling into the stereotype or falling into some of the first impressions of you from years ago but not really the guy who was on the field in 2004 making every play everytime the ball was up in the air.
BE: Definitely, I think another thing that happens with these guys, especially because they don't get a chance to watch the games like you do Kirk as an analyst, you get to watch all the different guys. Mel Kiper, he does some of his own film studying because he has to... but these other guys they just kinda hear what somebody else might say who heard that from somebody else who heard that from somebody else. They don't have a chance to do their own analysis of the player. So a lot of times you might get a Chicago report about a player in 2005, but the last time they actually scouted the player, the information they got, was from 2002. So they don't have actual current information.
JR: Braylon, you've never been a shy guy. Did you ever try to straighten them out?
BE: Nah, heh, the thing for me was none of these analysts or scouting.com, none of them had picks in the NFL draft. I believe that teams that are picking in the NFL draft, they did their own analysis, they looked at the film, and they saw what they needed to see. And if they had any questions off-the-field, let's say character or is the guy coachable... that's what Coach taught us for... or Coach Tressel... or Coach Coker. They'll call these guys on the phone, because a coach is not gonna lie, because it makes their credibility look bad. If you lie about one player now, then you have another player a few years from now, they are not going to believe the coach because you lied about the first player. So the coach's credibility is very important. So you have these guys who they can just ask about you, 'How's been braylon been coachingwise over the past four years?' and they say 'You know what, he's been a great kid, he works hard' then they take that at face value. I mean that's what matters, film and then the coaches.
JR: Was there any talk, or discussion with the 49ers? We had heard you could possibly go #1 overall, you mentioned it earlier in the interview... and did the Cleveland Browns give you any indication they would take you with the #3 pick?
BE: In terms of the 49ers, I did have contact with them. I actually took a visit to San Fran and they contacted the organization with my agent... so it was definitely a possibility, not a strong possibility, but a possibility indeed. In terms of cleveland, they always said they liked me but they did not want to show their cards or let people know what they were thinking. But their receivers coach came to my pro day, really liked me, but other than that there was very little contact. I guess they were trying to stay under the radar.
KH: Braylon, looking at this team, you're part of such a winning tradition at Michigan, and anytime you go high in the draft, you usually going to be part of a team that's looking to get things going in the right direction again. When you look at the browns, yourself, Rodney Pool, others are gonna get a chance to contribute right away. Your thoughts on going to Cleveland and trying to help turn this franchise around, back to the way it was back in the 80s with Bernie Kosar and some of those great teams.
BE: First and foremost, I'm ecstatic about going to an organization like the Browns that has so much history and so much tradition. They keep it around them, and they never seem to stray from the past... and they always try and bring that back. In terms of playing and trying to bring that past back, I'm ecstatic. They've got guys that they've already brought in Gary Baxster to Ruben Droughns to Trent Dilfer as a veteran: clutch kind of guy who is not going to hurt you. Then you have the young guys like myself or Rodney Pool, Charlie Frye or Antonio Perkins, and then you have a guy like Kellen Winslow who will be 100% this year. So I definitely think this is a team that will have a lot of young guys play, contribute and who knows? The atmosphere I get with Coach Crennel is that we're really gonna have a chance to do some things this year.
KH: Do me a favor, and don't let Antonio Bryant get in your grill in any way, shape or form... because he's a great guy at times and he's a volatile guy at times. I'm looking down the list of receivers trying to find the guy for you to look up to and I'm still looking (chuckles). You may have to be your own leader. Dennis Northcutt could maybe be a guy who could help you out, but Antonio Bryant has been known to be, from time to time, somewhat animated. He had some tough times down in Dallas, but maybe he's grown up. Perhaps this is a chance to learn physically from a guy, but mentally you might have to deal with that on your own.
BE: Definitely, when you meet the guys you realize there are some you should listen to and take advice from, and then there are others who you should not hang out with after practice. That's any team you go to, you're gonna notice those guys right away. The guy that stands out for me is Trent Dilfer; he's been around, he's been on good teams, he's been on bad teams; he's had good years, he's had bad years. A guy like that can really help you develop as a player. As a young player, he can give you all the advice he can share in terms of 'you don't want to do this' or 'this is how you want to approach this' or 'this happened to me.' And so a guy like that is somebody you really pick their brain to get as much knowledge as you can.
KH: And Lee Suggs would be another guy with less experience but really a quality guy. Hey before we let you go... you know what's funny about the state of ohio... Columbus you have Ohio State. What's interesting about Columbus is that Cleveland and Columbus is like some sort of brotherhood. If you're a browns fan, you're a buckeye fan (and vice versa). Cincinnati and Columbus just hate each other, for whatever reason. If you live in Cincinnati, you like the Bengals and you hate Ohio State. For the Cleveland fans that live in Columbus, give them one lasting impression of your experiences of coming into the Shoe as a wolverine and how unique it was compared with any other stadium you used to go to in terms of the crowd and what you would have to deal with coming into the Shoe.
BE: First and foremost, those Columbus fans, those Buckeyes, they know, they really know how to intimidate a team. Especially the young guys; they're very rowdy, they're very loud and they come out in an abundance. They are crazy from the start of the game on... (actually) the start of the week of the game, when you first come in and you are checking out the stadium you see all these people yelling at you, cussing at you, wearing that scarlet and gray, and they have that scarlet and gray in their eyes. Man this is more than a game, this is more than what I expected.
When the game starts and you run on the field and you hear the boos of 100,000 people... I mean it's crazy. Then Ohio State might get their first big play or touchdown... and man, I've never heard anything as loud as when Maurice Clarett came on the field. Now I know he might not be real high in columbus right now... but I've never heard anything as loud as when he came onto the field when we played in 2002 down at the Shoe and he had that 30 yard play, I've never heard anything that loud in my life. I couldn't hear myself think, I couldn't hear the playcalls, we were kinda guessing. And the last play of the game, when we ran all post routes and it got intercepted, that wasn't even supposed to be the play call. But it was so loud down there, Navarre couldn't hear, gave the wrong play call, and we ran the wrong route. And so it was an easy interception, so that's just an example of how it is down there.
KH: Well now the good thing is that they're now with you, supporting you up in Cleveland. We wish you well up there in Cleveland and we'll be talking to you real soon. Congratulations on having this all behind you and now you can focus on just playing some football.
BE: Thanks Kirk. Always a pleasure.
KH: See ya Br...
JR: (interrupting loudly) Welcome to the Buckeye state big guy...
BE: Appreciate it.
JR: Ha ha ha ha... (laughing and talking loudly) Braylon Edwards, Michigan wideout, now a member of the Cleveland Browns.
