Pardon the watermark, and photo credit to Icon Sportswire, obviously, and as always, due process is in effect, but this picture could not epitomize my thoughts toward Brian Edwards more if he’s guilty of what he’s been charged with: WHAT… ARE… YOU… DOING???
Florida defensive back Brian Edwards is in police custody after being booked on a rather ugly battery charge.
UPDATE: As of early Wednesday morning, Edwards remains in custody. He has pleaded not guilty. This is the juncture of the story where it’s imperative that we as fans force ourselves to sit back and wait for the entirety of the story to come to light, rather than pass judgment based on the one side that got told first.
Granted, that one side does not look good.
Per a report from the Gainesville Police Dept., Edwards became involved in an altercation with his girlfriend of two years at his apartment. The scene turned ugly when she tried to leave and Edwards used physical force to prevent this from happening. The report states that Edwards grabbed her by the throat to keep her from fleeing, which left marks on her neck and one on her shoulder. Thankfully, a nearby witness stopped Edwards from doing any more damage by intervening and calling 911.
Edwards may have already done more damage than one can recover from in terms of his career in Gainesville, though.
We’ll see how Dan Mullen wants to play this, and I suppose it’s always possible that a deep and thorough investigation turns something unexpected up that makes us view Edwards in a far more sympathetic light than we do right now. But barring an unexpected twist here, at the very least, I’d expect a two or three game suspension for him, which means he’ll miss the game of his dreams against his hometown Miami Hurricanes. And there is a chance that Edwards will soon be looking to play college football elsewhere. Then again, Mullen did continue to pursue Jeffery Simmons after a video surfaced of him doing something pretty terrible, too, so maybe this is one where Edwards gets a second chance.
Regardless, though: this is most decidedly not good for Edwards, and for Florida. I really don’t care for the trolls from rival fans when a player gets arrested, but far more importantly, I really wish people would listen to what their mothers taught them when they were four and keep their hands to yourself.
It’s not supposed to be a hard lesson, but Edwards just made it one for himself.
