Braylon Edwards: What's More Important? Your Image or Playing Football?

(Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images)

The details of the evening of drinking before the accident involving Donte' Stallworth have been released and there is one name that was dropped that may or may not have shocked Cleveland Browns fans.

That name was Braylon Edwards.

When Edwards was drafted by the former regime of Phil Savage and Romeo Crennel, he was their first draft choice and the new face of the rebuilding Browns organization.

After a promising start in his rookie season, Edwards went up for a ball during a game and came down the wrong way on his leg, injuring his knee and he was lost for the rest of the season.

After rehabbing his injury back into playing shape, Edwards' second season was very solid for the high first round draft pick, finishing with over 800 yards receiving.

Then in 2007, Edwards was electric, making amazing plays all over the field all season long and finished the year as a Pro Bowler.

Last year, every single Browns fan does not need to be reminded of what happened because it's still so fresh in their minds, but one word can say it all.

Drops.

Now, news has broke that Edwards was Stallworth's drinking mate the night of the fateful accident, and by the reported amounts of money that were spent, they must have had one heck of a party.

Edwards was reported to have spent $3,443 on drinks including: a $1,500 bottle of champagne and $695 on vodka.

Most blue-collar Clevelanders are lucky to make that much money in a month or two, but Edwards and Stallworth were celebrating Stallworth's $4.5 million bonus that he received.

In all honesty, if anyone got a bonus of that much money, they too would probably want to go out and celebrate, so you can't hold that against Stallworth, but of course you can hold it against him that he did make wrong decisions later in the evening.

Getting back to the point, Edwards said that if he thought Stallworth wasn't good enough to drive, then he would have told him to stay in the hotel room with him.

Edwards also said that Stallworth "seemed fine" before leaving the club, but after spending that much money at the bar, why wouldn't Edwards just have to sense to tell Stallworth to stay? Or get him a cab? Or get Stallworth his own room?

With a huge bonus like that, any of those options could have been easily afforded, but what happened is not Edwards fault because Stallworth can make his own decisions, but he didn't help the matter and the resulting outcome cannot be changed.

What can change is Edwards' image on and off of the field.

During the 2008 season, Edwards told Cleveland reporters that Cleveland fans have it out for him because he is from Michigan.

Ridiculous? Yes, but he said it.

Edwards lost his focus for most of the season and dropped more passes than any other wide receiver in the NFL.

Now Edwards image has been tainted a little bit more with him now being involved in the evening of the accident.

It's not that Edwards is a bad person especially since he has donated a million dollars to provide scholarships for Cleveland students, but his "I'm a good guy, but not a good guy" persona has now got to end.

Edwards is now in the final year of his contract and needs to put the past in the past and just be a football player to help the Browns this upcoming season.

Whether he resigns with the Browns after 2009 or not, Edwards has to prove that he is not just a receiver who drops the ball a lot, but that he is one of the elite receivers in the league and that he is not the bad person he seems to think or wants to be.

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