Humility With Herm

Former nfl Player and Coach Herman Edwards’ shares his winning philosophy

In the storied history of the NFL, each coach has had their own philosophy to the game. Some stratagems consisted of passing on every play. While others simply blitzed on every play. Even their personalities were unique. The “Iron” Mike Ditka wannabes differed from the Kleenex-grabbing Dick Vermeils of the profession. No matter their approach to Sunday’s televised scrum, the final result was clear—victory. A simple principle to players and fans, but one many of the sports writers and football pundits who cover the game tend to forget.  After a tough 24-21 loss to the Cleveland Browns in 2002, then New York Jets Head Coach Herman Edwards was asked his philosophy on why you play the game. Edwards’ rebuttal was, in a word, simple. “You play to win the game. Hello? You play to win the game.” His forthright approach to the question was merely a glimpse of his overall dedication to the game. 

Edwards’ spent the better half of his 10-year NFL career as the captain of the Philadelphia Eagles’ secondary. His intuitive style of play continually made offensive coordinators update their resumes and turned the other team’s folly into the Eagles fortune. The Miracle at the Meadowlands ranks high on the almost endless list the of NFL’s top plays. Edwards’ fumble recovery and touchdown return of the bobbled hand-off between Giant’s quarterback Joe Pisarcik and fullback Larry Csonka with helped the Eagles secure a birth in the 1978 playoffs. Poise and execution are just two of the many adjectives football historians use to describe Edwards’ playing career. The same characteristics can used to define his eight years as an NFL coach with the New York Jets and more recently Kansas City Chiefs. Though his tenure as a coach ended with the conclusion of the 2008 season, he has traded his clipboard and whistle for an anchor desk and microphone. Edwards became the newest member of ESPN’s powerful line-up in March. Before changing professions, he sat down with TGM to discuss his other passion—golf.    

You are a golf fanatic, is that true? Well, I like playing (laughing). If I get a chance on the off season, yeah, I try to play golf. It’s my way of relaxing as well as getting exercise. 

How long have you been playing? I started playing probably in 1983. It was in spurts, never took a lesson. When I started coaching, I think then I started enjoying golf—in 1989/1990 was really kind of started wanting to learn more about it and playing more. 

Are you pretty competitive on the course? Yeah, but I’m competitive with myself. It’s more about me competing against the golf course, not the guys I’m playing with. You find out a lot about golf about who you are, because golf is similar to something like life. Every time you get a shot, whether good, bad or indifferent—there’s a reaction. Sometimes good. Sometimes not so good. What I’ve always realized about golf is, ‘How do you handle the next shot?’ That’s what I enjoy about it the most. It gives you a sense of who you are. I’ve always said when I play golf, you have to be patient, you have to enjoy what you’re doing and you have to control your temper and your emotions. Because if don’t control your emotions then your emotions will control you and I think that’s the same way in life. 

How did you fair in the Celebrity Pro-Am with the NFL Alumni? It went pretty good. It’s one where, uh, it’s a lot of pressure on you all of a sudden because you’re playing in front of people. The first thing you don’t want to do—you don’t want to hit anybody coming off the tee (laughs). But it’s a fun tournament, it’s competitive and if you’re a good golfer obviously there’s money involved where guys can win. I go in there every year just trying to play better than the previous year. It’s been a lot of fun for me to go up there and get involved in it. 

What did you shoot? Well they run the tournament this way, if you make par it’s worth a point. If you make birdie, it’s worth two. If you make a bogey you make nothing, if you make a double bogey you’re minus. And the real guys they end up with 75-80 points in three days, so I’m not one of those guys. I’m just trying to get even. If I can stay even—I’m doing real good. 

Do you take any of your players with you? Every once in a while, but those guys during the summer, everyone goes on their own. We have a golf tournament that we put together for charity that a lot of our players are involved in—that’s when I see them play.   

You had a dry humor when talking to the press—almost poking fun at yourself—during your days as a coach. Do you ever find yourself laughing at errors you’ve made on course? Yeah. You hit shots sometimes and you go, ‘Wow, how did that happen?’ You’re aiming left and you hit it three fairways right and you look at the ball like it’s the ball’s fault (laughing). You’re going to hit some bad shots. The hardest thing is when you’re in competition and when you play in front of a gallery. I’ve played in the AT&T at Pebble Beach and every time you line up, there’s people watching you. What’s great about fans is they don’t laugh at you when you hit bad shots, unless you laugh at yourself.  

The golf course is now the new corner office in corporate America. Have you seen any type of business ventures go down on the course? I haven’t been part of it, but I know a lot of things are talked about in that venue. And the fact that you’re with a guy or clients for four hours and a lot of things are discussed. I think the thing that you learn about golf is you learn a lot about the people you play with, how competitive they are and you get them in a different environment than what they really do. I think everyone’s kind of on an equal playing field. Some guys are better golfers than others, but I think the experience of being with a guy that you don’t know that you want to get acquainted with, that’s a great place to do it—out on the golf course. You have time to laugh and joke, you have time to be a little bit serious.

Being one of the few African American coaches in the league, is that any other added pressure to your job or does that come with the territory? No, that just comes with it. You don’t look at it that way. I think earlier, maybe my first year, you think about it a little bit. It’s not a big deal. What you want to do is you want to make sure you do things right, you represent your organization in a manner that is respectful and when people watch you as the leader of that organization they look at you with that in mind. You want to make it better for the ones that follow, and that’s what you always try to do. I’ve got tremendous faith and when you live by faith and not by sight. Only then can you deal with anything.  

Would you say that some of the lessons you’ve learned on the course translate into how you operate on the sidelines? No doubt. Patience and dealing with your emotions. I always tell players that you’ve got to deal with your emotions during the course of a football game. The guys that are mentally tough and can deal with adversity, those are the things that you have learn how to deal with in a game because it happens to you—every snap is a new situation, how you handle it is important. The thing about golf, it’s not a team sport. When something bad happens, you can’t really say, ‘It was a bad call,’ or ‘The coach put us in a bad situation.” You’ve got to be able to laugh at yourself when you hit bad shots. You can’t take it serious. You’ve got to enjoy it. At the end of the day, it’s all about the serenity and the peacefulness of the game for me.