NFL Player Gives 79 Students $10,000 for College

5 Years ago, NFL player Braylon Edwards gave an inspirational speech to a group of Cleveland’s 8th graders and told then he would someday pay for their college. What is even more inspirational is that he kept his word.

Edwards said that anyone who achieved a GPA of 2.5 and volunteered 15 hours of community service would get $10,000 for their education. Amazingly, 79 of the 100 students he spoke to met the criteria and are now going to school courtesy of Edwards.

“Without this scholarship, I probably wouldn’t be here,” Bowling Green freshman David Gholston told ESPN’s Rick Reilly.

Edwards said he was surprised by the number of students who met the criteria, as only about half of Cleveland’s high schoolers go on to graduate. However, instead of regretting his promise, he one-upped it. He also bought 79 laptops for his special students.

Edwards was playing for the Cleveland Browns at the time of his big promise, and now plays for the San Francisco 49ers.

His scholarships are part of his Advance 100 program, which Edwards and his mother spearheaded as a way of giving back to the community.

He makes a base salary of $1,000,000 this year with the 49ers. The contract jumps to $3.5 million if Edwards records a 90-catch or has a Pro Bowl season.