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| Thursday, March 1 By Mark Cannizzaro Special to ESPN.com | ||||||||||||||
"Enjoy the ride. Enjoy the journey."
This is the mantra to which newly-hired Jets head coach Herman Edwards
guides his life – on and off the football field.
Edwards wants to get there. He wants to win that first championship. And, if you listen to those who know him best – those who've watched him grow and helped nurture his skills – you get a strong sense he'll succeed in this new venture. You get the feeling that Edwards can become a star on the huge New York stage, one surrounded by fans who are always starved for a winner. The Jets, of course, have pined for a winner since Joe Namath and Co. shocked the Baltimore Colts and the world in 1969. "Herman has a personality that I think will play very well in New York," said ESPN analyst Ron Jaworski, a former Eagles teammate of Edwards. "People want a guy that's dynamic. Herman is dynamic. "Dom Capers (who was another candidate for the Jets job) is a tremendous football coach, but his personality wouldn't have fit in New York. Herm is the kind of guy New Yorkers are really going to enjoy. What you see is what you get. "His personality is right on his sleeve. You'll know when he's angry and you'll know when he's happy. That's the beauty of Herman Edwards. The big thing Herm has always had is the ability to relate to people. Some people, some players, they don't get it. He got it. Some people never get it. Herm is one of those guys who always had it." Bank on the ears of every Jets player being perked with interest the first time Edwards stands before them. "He'll give it everything he's got ... and then just a little more," Vermeil said. "People will respect him and care for him, because he will respect them and care for them." How close are Edwards and Vermeil, his coach of six years in Philadelphia? "If you go back and look at film of the Rams-Tampa Bay (NFC) Championship Game (in January of 2000), when it's all over, the first two people that met at midfield were Herman Edwards and Dick Vermeil," Vermeil said. Edwards, of course, was the Buccaneers' assistant head coach in charge of defensive backs before being hired by the Jets as their new head coach. 'Miracle' worker Edwards, who's talked about life being "a wheel," is a man not unaware of a number of ironies that surround him. In 1978, he was the Eagles who picked up the infamous Joe Pisarcik-to-Larry Csonka fumbled handoff attempt and ran it in for a touchdown in the "Miracle in the Meadowlands." The Meadowlands, otherwise known as Giants Stadium, is where Edwards will coach his first NFL game and lead the Jets. One of those home games will be against Vermeil's Chiefs this season. "He respects age," Vermeil quipped. "He'll take it easy on me." Edwards also started his first NFL game against the Jets, a preseason encounter at Giants Stadium. He also made his first career NFL interception of a Joe Namath pass while Namath was playing with the Rams. Vermeil still thinks of Edwards as "a kid" because he coached him.
Edwards, perhaps unknowingly, began formulating his head coaching career while he was still playing. Edwards recalled the day he found himself observing Dick Vermeil in a team meeting as a player wondering how he could make himself be more attentive to detail. His idea: He started building toy models. Not as a hobby, but to discipline himself to pay attention to every minute detail and, subsequently, apply that to his life as a football player and coach. "The tediousness of building models and putting all those little pieces together with such detail, painting every eyebrow on every soldier, helped my attention to detail," Edwards said. "I never even thought of building models when I was a child. But for two years as a player I did it. I'd start a project and tell myself, 'Don't quit. Don't stop until it's done right.' " Edwards, a 10-handicap golfer, uses that game to fortify himself mentally. In Tampa, he'd take his defensive backs out golfing as a group – whether they were players or not – and use that as a lesson in keeping poise. "I started playing in my third year in the league and I use it as, 'Can I hold my composure ... is it going to make me do something stupid?' " Edwards said. "I'd tell my players, 'If I ever say a swear word, I'll quit the game. If you ever see me throw a club, I'll quit right there.' In golf, there's no one to blame but yourself." Follow your father One of the shames in Edwards' life is that his father, also named Herman Edwards, never got to see him play professional football, bask in the glow of his son being named head coach of the Jets or play a hole of golf with his son. Herman Sr., a former E-7 Sergeant in the U.S. Army, died when Edwards was a sophomore in college. He, along with his wife, Martha, whom he met in Germany, brought Edwards up with hard work and attention to detail serving as a symbol of life. To this day, in fact, Edwards, who quotes his late father about "cleaning the corners" in reference to being thorough, believes his father died from the cumulative effect of all his hard work. "He was the most humble man you'll ever meet," Edwards said. "All he wanted to do was take care of his family. That's what he lived for. He had no hobbies." Herman Sr., who after the Army worked in construction and was the resident fix-it handyman for everyone in his Seaside, Calif., neighborhood, had passed out behind the wheel of his white truck and veered off the road, where he was found and brought to the local hospital. "I went to the hospital and he was awake," Edwards recalled. "He said, 'Mom OK?' I said, 'Yes.' He said, 'Sister OK?' I said, 'Yes.' Then he said, 'OK, you're going to have to take care of them now.' " Herman Sr. closed his eyes and, a short time later, he was gone. The doctors never gave the family a cause of death. It wasn't a heart attack or cancer or any other insidious disease. Natural causes is what they called it. "Natural causes," Edwards said, still hurt by the moment all these years later. "Whatever that is. I don't know what that is, natural causes. You know how people say they 'Work themselves to death?' I think my father just worked himself to death. I think he was just tired. He saw that his family was OK and ..." "He always told me, 'Son, I'm going to give you a good name and you have to make sure you pass that name on,' " Edwards recalled with a smile. "I always tell my son (Marcus) that. That's what I've always tried to do – keep the name of Edwards intact." He'll keep it intact under the microscope of hungry New York football fans, and the one thing Edwards will always be – win or lose – is genuine. Sure, there's a little salesman in his ebullient, energetic, contagious personality – every head coach needs that. But Edwards is true. True to his promises of disciplined, detailed hard work. True to his family and friends. True to his word. He'll be true to his players and Jets fans, most or all of whom will embrace him. Burning the midnight oil It's been a whirlwind winter for Edwards, a name even the most observant of Jets fans hadn't heard of as recently as New Year's Day.
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