Edwin Jackson Clark Wade/IndyStar
He was this jolt of energy and optimism, the burly jock who wasn’t afraid to dance and sing in the high school musical, the college freshman who showed up to football tryouts with his cleats in a Walmart sack and a self-belief that was unshakeable, the brother to nine siblings who facetimed each because a simple call wouldn’t let him see their smile on the other end of the phone.
He was the walk-on who became a team captain and backbone of the defense, the adventurer who spent a Christmas break in Costa Rica teaching the locals how to play American football, the never-met-a-stranger college star who lugged a GoPro across campus for an entire year just so he could take a selfie with every member of the student body.