CLEVELAND — A group of players practicing for a semi-pro football team is credited with helping to save a man from a house fire.
On Wednesday evening, members of the Cleveland Rams who were practicing at the John F. Kennedy High School football field noticed smoke coming from a home on the 4000 block of East 173rd Street.
"It all happened so fast," Diontez May recalled.
May said he saw the man waving his arm by the doorway of the home, which sits on a hill across from the football field.
"We saw his hand go up," May said. "Then, all of a sudden, just collapse."
May and his teammates climbed over what appeared to be a more-than-8-foot-tall fence to help the man and carry him across the street to safety.
"A lot of us work in situation where we have to react quickly," Rams owner Randy Knight told 3News. "No one had a second thought. They jumped the fence and they went."
Co-owner and player Bijon Walker said he also alerted a neighbor of the house fire to keep them safe from any nearby flames. Fire and emergency crews arrived on scene to help the man and get the fire under control.
"We don't call ourselves heroes; we just call it doing God’s work," May said. "If it was the other way around, we would hope somebody would do that for our grandpa or uncle. It's just basically God put us in the right position to save that guy's life.
Fire officials believe a space heater caused the fire.