Pro Football Hall of Famer Charles Woodson is getting back into the NFL.
According to The Athletic, Woodson will purchase a 0.1% stake in the Cleveland Browns from majority owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam. The sale to Woodson is contingent on him agreeing to broadcast restrictions similar to those imposed on Tom Brady, who is a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders in addition to a game analyst for Fox. Woodson works as an NFL and college football analyst for Fox.
Woodson was born and raised in Fremont, Ohio, which is around 85 miles west of Cleveland. He starred at Ross High School before attending the University of Michigan, where he famously won the Heisman Trophy while playing both offense and defense for the Wolverines before becoming the No. 4 overall pick in the 1998 NFL Draft.
Woodson then played 18 NFL seasons, 11 of them with the Oakland Raiders and seven with the Green Bay Packers. He won NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year in 1998 and Defensive Player of the Year in 2009, was named a Pro Bowler nine times and an All-Pro seven times (four times to the first team and three to the second team) and won a Super Bowl with the Packers in 2010.
He’s widely considered one of the best defensive backs in NFL history, having finished his career with 65 interceptions (11 returned for touchdowns), 183 passes defensed, 33 forced fumbles and 18 fumble recoveries. He is tied with Ken Riley for the fifth-most interceptions of all-time, and tied with Rod Woodson and Darren Sharper for the second-most defensive touchdowns. He showed incredible versatility during his career, transitioning from cornerback to safety in his late-30s and even making the Pro Bowl and an All-Pro team as a 39-year-old safety in his final NFL season.
Woodson was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame in 2018 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2021, his first year of eligibility.
