Alex Brown Detroit Lions cornerback Alex Brown (27) warms up during training camp at the team’s practice facility in Allen Park, Friday, Aug. 6, 2021.

NFL teams have released numerous players over the past two days as part of getting those rosters down to 85 players by Tuesday’s deadline, but one of the most unusual cuts came not over football, but in response to dangerous driving that put two people in hospital. That would be Detroit Lions’ cornerback Alex Brown (seen above during an Aug. 6 practice), who the team released Sunday. As Kyle Meinke writes at MLive.com, it came out Monday night that Brown was the driver who went the wrong way down I-75 early Sunday morning, leading to a crash that critically injured two people (teammate TE Charlie Taumoepeau, who was the passenger in Brown’s vehicle, as well as the driver of the other car). Here’s more from Meinke’s piece:

The driver who critically injured two people while driving the wrong way down I-75 in Detroit on Sunday was Lions cornerback Alex Brown. Tight end Charlie Taumoepeau, the passenger in Brown’s car, was one of the people seriously injured in the head-on collision.

Brown was arrested on two counts of operating while under the influence causing serious injury and two counts of reckless driving causing serious injury, according to prosecutor Kym Worthy’s office. He was booked in the Detroit Detention Center and is scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday.

…Brown, 24, is accused of driving northbound on the southbound I-75 near Mack Avenue a little after 2 a.m. Sunday, according to police. He struck another car head-on while traveling at a fast rate of speed, injuring Taumoepeau and the other driver, a 27-year-old Detroit man.

Taumoepeau was trapped in the car and had to be freed by the Jaws of Life. He was placed in a cervical collar and transported to a hospital with a neck injury, according to the prosecutor’s office. He is expected to recover.

That piece includes that the Lions cut Brown Sunday, and that they waived Taumoepeau with a non-football injury designation Monday. Here’s the team statement:

Our thoughts go out to Taumoepeau, the other person injured, and their families.

[MLive; photo from Junfu Han/Detroit Free Press via USA Today Sports]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.