‘You want some?’ Ed Reed talks brawl with a heavyweight champion and ‘01 team’s greatness
The lore of Miami’s 2001 national championship has been well documented.
Six All-Americans, 13 first-team all-conference, 17 first-round NFL draft picks — the accolades go on and on.
While they were quite possibly the most talented college football team ever assembled, NFL Hall of Famer Ed Reed attributed their success to the coaching.
“It’s the people who guided you man,” Reed said on Bleacher Report’s Untold Stories. “Everybody should have a mentor, but we had men raising young men. That is what it was about.”
Reed was right. During his tenure as a Cane, UM had assembled a staff highlighted by two-time Super Bowl champion Butch Davis as well as other notable names such as Larry Coker, Greg Schiano and Chuck Pagano.
“We had a lot of great men leading young men,” Reed added.
Their success on the field was unquestionable. In fact, UM has only had three 10-win seasons since 2001. But a story that Reed revealed shows their off-the-field lives might be just as impressive.
According to Reed, he and some of his teammates were at a club on South Beach when they heard the words no group of friends ever want to hear.
“’One of our teammates just got knocked out,’” Reed recalled his teammate saying.
They exit the club and eventually run into the man responsible for that fateful punch: former heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs.
“He jumps up, ‘You want some?’ like Deebo [from the movie ‘Friday’,” he continued.
Although the former Baltimore Ravens safety was smart enough to know fighting someone 6-foot-4 with an 80-inch reach could only end poorly, his teammate Bryant McKinnie disagreed. The former Miami offensive tackle ended up getting into it with Briggs while Reed quickly handled the boxer’s friend.
“Bryant grabbed Shannon Briggs by his dreads, yanks him down like he’s Dwight Freeney,” Reed told Master Tesfatsion.
What happened next is kind of murky. Reed says the boxer’s crew started wailing on McKinnie who was on top of Briggs. Then something strange happened.
“By the time I get over there, this guy just took off running out of the group,” Reed said,
Assuming the “guy” is McKinnie, that’s surprising to say the least. At 6-foot-8, 360-pounds, he’s not really much of runner especially considering Reed found him near Nikki Beach — more than 15 blocks away.
What makes this story so funny is that the Canes seemed to talk the talk and walk the walk. They might have mouthed off on the field but they backed it up and had each other’s backs. Aside from their roster and coaches, this is what truly made them great.
Now if only Reed can bring that sense of swagger and teamwork back to campus.
This story was originally published February 4, 2020 at 6:41 PM.
