'He will send angels to be camped around you': Football player saves man from burning car
An NFL football player is crediting God for placing him in the right place at the right time, enabling him to save a man from a burning car.
KJ Osborn, a wide receiver who plays for the Minnesota Vikings, took to Twitter Monday to announce that “Last night myself and these three absolute hero’s helped save a man's life by rescuing him from a vehicle up in flames after a bad crash.”
Osborn described what unfolded as “a situation I’d never imagine being a part of in a million years.”
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The tweet included two pictures of the fire-damaged car and a picture of Osborn alongside the individuals he described as heroic: his Uber driver and the couple he shared the ride with.
Osborn repeatedly attributed his presence at the scene of the accident to divine intervention. “I believe God had me, us, at the right place at the exact right time,” he said. “I’ll leave you with this. God is real. And His LOVE is real. He will send his angels to be camped around you and provide you with his grace and mercy.”
Right Place Right Time. ???? pic.twitter.com/Jxcn0qBouC
— KJ Osborn (@KJ_Osborn) March 7, 2023
Osborn elaborated on what took place in Austin, Texas, Sunday night in an appearance on ESPN Radio’s “The Adam Schefter Podcast” Monday: “I’m on my way home, I’m in the back of an Uber and my head is down. I’m on my phone, just on my way home and my Uber driver just starts going crazy. He’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, oh my gosh.’ And I look up and … I’m kind of wondering, ‘what’s all the fuss about’ and there’s nobody on the street.”
After the Uber driver frantically shouted, “this guy crashed,” Osborn saw that a driver had “hit the pillar” beneath a bridge, which caused it to burst into flames.
“His car is in flames and it’s the airbag and we don’t see him,” Osborn added, telling Schefter that the Uber driver “got out of the car” and insisted that they call 911.
Osborn pushed back, declaring, “We’ve got to go save this guy.” He praised his Uber driver as “brave” and a “hero,” recalling how he went “right up to the car” and “opened the door” to see if the man in the car was alive. As Osborn internally expressed concern that “this car can blow up in any second and it could all be over,” the Uber driver determined that the man trapped in the car was still alive but “he couldn’t move.”
“We’re trying to get him out of the car and he was able to muster enough strength to move his upper body to the passenger’s seat,” he added. As the man was bleeding and the car was engulfed in flames, Osborn “pulled him out of the car” and after successfully removing him from the vehicle, he “picked him up” and carried the man about 10-15 yards away from the vehicle.
After “the ambulance came” and firefighters “got the flames to go down,” police officers informed the football player that he “saved that man’s life” because “he wouldn’t have been able to get out of that vehicle without our help.” The Vikings wide receiver said he planned to visit the man at the hospital and wanted to “shake his hand.”
Osborn told Schefter that he was in Austin for “off-season training,” noting that such exercises usually take place in Miami. He cited his presence in Austin as one of several factors that helped save the man’s life. Osborn then answered in the affirmative when Schefter asked, “If you hadn’t been training in Austin and your Uber wasn’t going in that direction, there’s a real chance that this man would not have survived.”
“It’s crazy because I missed my first Uber. We called an Uber and we were … about to leave and I missed my first Uber, so even if I would have made my first Uber, I don’t know if I would have been able to be there for him.”
Looking back on his experience, which he described as the “most [crazy] experience of my life,” Osborn expressed gratitude that he was “able to help him” along with the “three other heroes that were there.” He likened it to a “near-death experience” because he directly went over to a “car up in flames.”
Osborn’s Twitter profile contains multiple references to God, including the phrase “Put God 1st” in his biography. His pinned tweet shows video footage of his reaction to learning that the Minnesota Vikings had drafted him, accompanied by a declaration that “God is good.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
