An ex-NFL player protected his neighbors while wearing a unique outfit. It sounds like something out of a comic book, but for Mike Withycombe, it was just reaction and grabbing what was handy as he jumped out of bed.

"I heard my landlord screaming at the top of her lungs. The first thing I grabbed is my kilt which is by the bed," Withycombe said.

The former lineman says when he got outside near Charleston and Casino Center boulevards, he was told a man who had been hanging in the area all day was back.

"They were saying this guy’s a lurker, he's hiding in the shadows, he's following me, stuff like that,” Withycombe said.

A neighbor, who didn't want to be identified, said the man followed her home and threatened to kill her and her mother.

Once he got downstairs, Withycombe confronted the reported attacker.

“I said look man it's time for you to go," Withycombe said. "I guess he wasn't too worried about an old man in a kilt. He decided to take a swing at me and woke up very happily to see the police there as they were

handcuffing him."

The former football player said the man didn’t go down without a fight.

"He took a swing at me, I grabbed him, hit him a couple of times. He hit the pavement and then my knee hit him and then I pinned him," Withycombe said. "I ended up just choking him out."

That’s about the time police arrived.

Withycombe says officers enjoyed his attire.

"Cops loved it. There are like, 'took him down in a kilt like a boss,'" Withycombe said.

The hero didn’t walk away from the battle unscathed.

Withycombe has cuts and scrapes all over his knees and feet, but he said he would do it again if needed.