Vikings’ K.J. Osborn Helped Rescue Man from Burning Car, Carry Him to Safety

Minnesota Vikings wide receiver K.J. Osborn was thrust into an unexpected situation when he helped pull a man from a burning car and carry him to safety on Sunday.

Osborn detailed the experience to ESPN’s Adam Schefter on The Adam Schefter Podcast, saying he was on his way home with three other people when his Uber driver noticed a car crashed into a pillar under a bridge.

“My Uber driver, he went right up to the car. He opened the door. You know, he’s trying to see if the guy’s alive. I’m like, ‘Man, this guy is brave,'” Osborn recalled. “You know, we seen that the guy was alive. We’re yelling, you know, ‘He’s alive.’ But you know, he couldn’t move. And again, the car’s in flames the whole time.”

Osborn and the other people at the scene approached the car to help the man get out of the passenger side, though it looked like a dire situation.

“You know, we start to go down there, we’re talking to the guy and we’re trying to get him out of the car,” he said. “And he was able to muster enough strength to move his upper body to the passenger seat. … They’re trying to drag him out of the car. I was right there. You know, I ran up. We initially pulled him out of the car. … Car is burning up. It’s in flames. You know, he has blood on him. He’s bleeding.”

Osborn added that the blaze was so bad that he was worried that they were in danger of the car exploding. Once they got the man out of the car, the 25-year-old carried him away from the crash until emergency responders arrived to the scene.

“At that time, you know, I’m trying to get out of the way of the car. I’m thinking it’s about to blow at any second. That’s what you see in all the movies. I’m like, we got to get this guy out of the way,” Osborn said. “We get him out of the car, and that’s when I picked him up. He’s bleeding, he’s bleeding all on my shirt and everything. I pick him up, and I carry him about 10, 15 yards. This way, we at least away from the car a little bit. By then, you know, the ambulance came. The firefighters got the flames to go down.”

Osborn said he was told by police that the man survived with minimal injuries thanks to him and the other people who sprung into action. Had they arrived to the scene any later, the story could have been much different.

“The police officers got all our info and everything, They came back and told us, we saved that man’s life. That he wouldn’t have been able to get out of that vehicle, you know, without our help,” Osborn said. “I think he walked away pretty well. I haven’t checked on him yet. I plan to go to the hospital to check on him. … The news I heard, he had an ankle and his mouth was just bleeding. But, you know, other than that, he was OK. … He was alive, which was the greatest blessing.”

A 2020 fifth-round pick out of Miami, Osborn has career numbers of 110 catches, 1,305 yards and 12 touchdowns.