Cleveland Browns player David Njoku recently declared, “I give all the glory to God”, following an accident where he was face was burned, but his vision was spared. The tight end suffered burn injuries to his face and arm in a “household accident”, the team confirmed in a Sept. 30 statement.
David Njoku in 2022 | SCREENSHOT: ClipCastle/YouTube
Now in his seventh season, David Njoku is one of the team’s valued weapons on offense, logging a career-high 58 catches in 2022. However, he says he’s lucky he can still see – let alone play – after the incident.
“When it happened … my eyes were open,” he recalled. “I saw everything. I really should have been blinded.”
Njoku referred to the burn injuries in a post on X and suggested that he planned to play that weekend anyway. “The flesh is weak,” he wrote. “See u tomorrow #DawgPound.”
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Indeed, David Njoku did play on Oct. 1 in his team’s 28-3 loss to the Baltimore Ravens, despite being listed as questionable on the team’s injury report. Despite his recent and unfortunate turn of events, the former Miami Hurricane led his team with six catches for 46 yards. Even in defeat, it was lauded as a gutsy performance by media, fans, and many of his NFL contemporaries.
Speaking to reporters later, Njoku explained that when he shared the picture of his injured face after he got “a lot of messages from… other burn victims”.
“They were telling me how like everybody feels like embarrassed to show whatever so I wanted just to come out for them and show myself so… everyone might feel a little bit better about themselves,” he added. “At the end of the day, things heal.”
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