Chiefs Herm Edwards Press Conference - 9/30

**Tribal Warfare** · 09-30-2008, 05:33 PM

Herm Edwards Press Conference - 9/30
Sep 30, 2008, 5:01:12 PM

Highlights

HERM EDWARDS: “Carolina: a good football team, a very physical, tough football team. They’ve played in a lot of close games thus far. They’re scoring about 20 points a game and giving up about 17. They run the ball for the most part, have two good receivers in Smith and Muhammed, have two good running backs. The rookie running back has scored four touchdowns and is averaging about 4.4 yards a carry – out of Oregon.

“The quarterback is a veteran guy, tough guy, a good football player. They run it, play-action pass it, play good defense. They play field position football basically. They have two kickers and their kickoff guy, Lloyd, generally kicks the ball in the endzone so generally 84% of the time you’re playing on the long field and their defense does a good job of not allowing you take long drives on them.

“They’re even in the turnover ratio and when they’re plus in giveaway-takeaway they’ve won 13 consecutive home games.

“It’s a game where you can’t let the score get away from you because it you do they’re just going to pound away on you. They don’t blink and they play tight games.”

Q: How is Branden Albert?

EDWARDS: “Branden Albert is okay and probably questionable. His elbow is pretty swollen.”

Q: You don’t expect him to miss much time?

EDWARDS: “I don’t know that.”

Q: Is it a dislocation?

EDWARDS: “It came out and went back in.”

Q: Is it going to require surgery?

EDWARDS: “No, nothing is broken. Kind of when a finger comes out, except it’s an elbow.”

Q: Is Patrick Surtain going to be back?

EDWARDS: “He’s going to try and go, he’s going to try and practice.”

Q: If he’s ready are you ready to make a permanent change with Carr?

EDWARDS: “We have three starting corners, I know that. I don’t know if Pat is able to play a whole game yet. We need them all. I know that. We haven’t made a decision.

Q: Do you know any other team that is starting two rookie corners?

EDWARDS: “No, just us.”

Q: Do you think that with the win the youngsters grew up a little bit?

EDWARDS: “I think they found out how hard it is to win in this league. It’s difficult. It’s not as easy as you think when you come into this league, especially when you come from programs that have won a lot of games.

“The thing we did, and we talked about it all week, was having energy. You’re not going to play perfect, and don’t worry about playing perfect. It’s about playing with energy and passion and they did that. They did it for four quarters and in a close game.

“You look at four of the games we played in, most of the time at halftime with the exception of Atlanta it was close. It’s a one-score game. This was the only game that we actually led. I think they understood you’ve got to keep your emotions going, you can’t worry about the score. You just got to keep playing and if you keep playing and play hard good things will happen. It happened for us and we got some breaks, we took the ball away, we had great field position. But when you play hard and with passion good things happen to you and we took advantage of it. We played very good in the Red Zone and we scored some points.”

Q: Did you think the passion wasn’t there before?

EDWARDS: “No, it was there. I thought it was there in the first half. In New England it was there. Oakland it was there. This game it was there. Atlanta, it got away from us because of the big plays and it was a more confident. We have so many young guys playing they kind of didn’t know what to anticipate. This week it was a little bit different and we talked about it. It was my main objective to talk to them about that. We have to just keep playing. We can’t worry about if we don’t have a lot of points at halftime. So far, we haven’t. That’s who we are right now, but you’re in the game and you’ve got to keep playing.”

Q: How did Herb Taylor grade out the second half?

EDWARDS: “He played good. What he can do is he’s a pretty good pass protector. That’s one of his strong suits. We found out that last year. He can pass block.”

Q: Is Glenn Dorsey coming on, are you seeing it?

EDWARDS: “Oh yeah, he really played good this week. He did a good job. He’s getting better. After four games now they’re kind of getting it, understanding what it takes, they’re growing up. That’s what I’m seeing. They’ve got a long way to go but what I’m seeing is they are a lot better now than they were our first game.”

Q: Brian Waters made the comment after the game that the young players have learned how hard you have to work to get a win.

EDWARDS: “That, and you can’t look for anybody else to help you. There’s nothing to say. It’s more about playing. I keep stressing this and I keep stressing this and I think it’s important: the one thing you have when you’re a young guy you have talent. That’s what gets you in this league. But you also have passion. You’re not going to know how to do everything correctly. That’s part of the process of learning how to play. You’ve got to keep playing with passion. Don’t let your passion die because you’ve made mistakes and are over-analyzing things, thinking like a robot, like I don’t want to make a mistake here if I do this. You can’t worry about that. You’ve got to go play.

“We made some errors. We didn’t do everything right. But we played so hard we could cover up for it. If you continue to play like that you’re going to get better.”

Q: Were you concerned that some of the young players were getting discouraged?

EDWARDS: “I think they were questioning their talent. You can’t question that. The way you overcome that is you just have to keep playing. Just play with energy and going fast. Just to keep playing fast.

“We tried to simplify some things for them, but the only way you learn is to play and the more they play the more confident they become.”

Q: What’s Tamba Hali’s status?

EDWARDS: “His knee was bothering, sore from last week’s game. He did a good job of going in and battling because we’re really thin at the end position, as you know. He’s not full-speed yet, but for him to show up and play I thought that helped us.”

Q: Along those same lines, you are still struggling to get pressure on the quarterback. Is there anything you can do to fix that during the course of the season or is it personnel?

EDWARDS: “The way you do that is to bring other people. That’s a way you can get it done. You’ve got a young end in Johnston and he played better this week. Tamba wasn’t a 100%, so that’s where it’s at. Turk is playing well and is learning too. But we’re going to have to bring pressure other ways if we’re going to get pressure on the quarterback.”

Q: How much of being a pass rusher is having it or getting better?

EDWARDS: “You can get better but the natural guy is a natural guy. Some guys just have good feel for it. The great ones have that, whatever it is.”

Q: Tony Gonzalez talked about how disappointed he was in not getting the three yards he needed to set the all-time record in receiving yards. What are your thoughts on if he should have gotten the ball?

EDWARDS: “When you’re a competitive guy — and Tony is very competitive – you wish it would have happened for him yesterday. He’s at home. It would have been a great venue for it to happen. It’s going to happen – eventually. He’s got 12 games left.

“But it doesn’t happen. His competitiveness comes out and when you want something that bad and you’re that close you just figure why can’t we do it. Well, I was in a situation in that football game where when I aware of it, it was a little bit too late for us to do that.

“I’ve always been a guy who believes team comes first. I couldn’t do it; it wouldn’t be right to do it. It wouldn’t be fair to me or the football team. It wasn’t anything against Tony at all. It was just the circumstances you’re in. You just can’t do it because there are a lot of things you have to answer when you do it about football and how it should be played. I believe it’s played a certain way and when you’re trying to win a game – and we hadn’t won a game in such a long time – to put that in jeopardy you can’t. You cannot do it. I wasn’t willing to do it.

“I think Tony and I had a great conversation. I told him where I was at. I told him I know how you feel but the day you accept your jacket and bust at the Hall of Fame I want you to think about this conversation we had today. I bet you’ll smile. Tony’s fine. If he does it on the road I’m sure this organization will do something for him when he comes home for our fans and for everyone else. It’s well deserved.

“You talk about a guy who’s going to break all the records in the history of tight ends. That’s a great tribute to him and what he’s done for this organization and he’ll be rewarded.”

Q: Were you satisfied that he was no longer upset after talking to him?

EDWARDS: “One thing I don’t try to do is convince people. I just tell people the truth, this is my side of the story, you have your side of the story. I’m not trying to change your opinion. It’s not about that. It’s about me telling you where I’m at and what I have to do, what my job and my responsibilities are to this football are. It was a great conversation.”

Q: Considering that you guys got a victory are you surprised or disappointed he was that upset about it?

EDWARDS: “I wasn’t anything. I’ve been a player. I get it. I get all that stuff. It’s taken nothing away from our win. Tony was elated we won the game, no doubt about it.

“I remember this as a player. Harold Carmichael when I was in Philadelphia broke a record. They stopped the game, they brought the trophy out, they brought his wife out and he got a standing ovation in Philadelphia. We go in the locker room after the game was over with and he says, ‘Herm, I wish we had won the game. If we had won the game I would have given this back. I just wanted to win the game.’

“It’s the way it is. It just didn’t work out this time. He’ll break the record, no doubt about it and he’ll get all the accolades he deserves and he deserves a lot of them.”

Q: With Tony going past another record and you rebuilding why not trade Tony and get picks for him? What’s his value in a rebuilding process?

EDWARDS: “Because most people in today’s world of sports hardly ever finish with the team they start with. Tony has a chance to do that. That’s hard to do anymore. If you start somewhere and finish there and get the accolades he’s gotten so far, that’s really big. It’s big for him, big for this organization.

“I think he’s going to be a Chief long as he wants to be a Chief.”

Q: Do you see him influencing the young players? Do you see a Dwayne Bowe look at the work he puts in to play the way he does?

EDWARDS: “He’s helping Dwayne Bowe; he’s helping (Brad) Cottam a lot. That’s what the pros do. They give something back to the game. It’s not about what you’re going to receive from the game because you receive a lot of things as a player. You receive accolades, you receive a way to make a leaving. But what do you give back to the players who follow you? I was taught that by Roman Gabriel on my walks to the practice field at training camp every day.

“That’s what Roman Gabriel taught me: how to be a professional football player. What it took. ‘These are things I’m going to give you that money can’t buy. Conversations and how to practice and how to prepare.’ That was done by a pretty good quarterback. I walked with him every day and learned what it took to play in this league. That’s what pro players do. They let them know what it takes to be a professional football player.”

Q: Don’t the other guys, too, see the way he works after practice?

EDWARDS: “Absolutely. What are you willing to put in on your own time? At the end of the day it’s your profession. What you put in is what you get out and your talent alone is good, but if you want to be one of those top echelon players you have to work hard and that’s what he does.”

Q: What is it about San Diego State in the ‘70s that it produced two NFL head coaches?

EDWARDS: “Lot of double transfers to San Diego State, lot of renegade players. That’s how I ended up there. It was JC’s (junior colleges). That’s how they used to be in the ‘70s. It was JC players on those teams in the ‘70s and the ‘60s. It was a four year school but it was basically JC guys. It was kind of ironic because most of the guys were either JC guys or guys from big schools. I was at Cal and left. Little bit of a renegade school. There were some characters there.”

Q: And yet it’s the place that produced two guys from the same backfield that became head coaches. Could you have imagined that?

EDWARDS: “If I would have thought that I was going to be a head coach…now John Fox had a shot. I could see him being a coach. He was kind of like the captain on the defense, the safety, very analytical. You could see he was going to be a head coach. He knew then that he probably wasn’t going to play pro football. Sure enough, as soon he got out he went to small schools and started coaching. He worked his way up the chain.

“For me, I was just glad someone would accept me to go to school. I was a renegade.”

Q: But you had the pros in mind, too?

EDWARDS: “Well, I had that ambition. I was fortunate. A lot of people helped me along the way. I took a hard road to get here. Somebody gave me a chance. I wasn’t drafted, but a lot of it was probably because I was a double transfer and had a lot of hair on my head and when the coach asked a question I asked him why we had to do it. I was probably one of those guys who was a smart aleck and had long hair. Kind of made me a free agent.”

Q: Who was your coach there?

EDWARDS: “Don Coryell had just left. He had just recruited me and went to St. Louis and Gilbert took over there. Madden coached there, obviously. Joe Gibbs. They all were out of San Diego State.”

Q: Do you feel a weight has been lifted off your shoulders with this win? Do you sleep better?

EDWARDS: “I kept asking my wife in bed about 1 o’clock, ‘we won right, honey?’ And she said, ‘yeah, we won honey.’

“I just feel for everybody: for the players, the organization, for our fans. I mean, our fans…that game felt like Arrowhead. You could just… It was different. The energy the fans brought the players felt. I think the young guys needed to feel that. They hadn’t felt that and for them it was electric. It was Arrowhead, the fans, everyone involved in the game. Now, you feel you can move on. We don’t have to worry about that any more. We can just concentrate on the game.”

Q: How did you approach the Denver game?

EDWARDS: “If they get 10 possessions, we need to try and hold them to two touchdowns and three field goals. What we had to do is, they do kick the ball off, because they score a lot. Hopefully it’s on field goals. We need to have our kickoff return team give us good return yardage so it’s on a short field. We have to take the ball away twice. We did it more than that. We did it four times.

“We were on the plus side of the 50, six times. Out of those six times, we scored four.

“The next key for us when we had the ball on offense, was to take the clock down, every time we had the ball, was to take the clock down to four seconds before you snap the football, to take time off the clock, so we could keep their offense off the field. That was a little bit of the plan we had and it came to fruition. We were going to run the ball. We weren’t going to get out of running the ball. To run the ball, you have to keep it to a one score game. You can’t go behind by two scores. If you do, they are going to put you in a position where you are going to have to throw and we didn’t want to do that. We wanted to stop them from running. We wanted them to throw the ball because we just felt if you throw the ball enough times, we can maybe take some of those balls, or hit the quarterback. We were able to.

“t kind of worked out for us. The plan kind of worked. You always have these plans before the game, you change the plan. The plan was good. For us scoring early was important; we haven’t had a lead. That’s why when we got down there, I was settling for field goals because I knew where we were at. If you don’t make it and you go for it on fourth down, that deflates this whole football team. That would deflate us. I wasn’t going to do that. We wanted to score and that’s what we were able to do.

“We ran the ball because we were trying to play small ball, not large ball. Take as much time as you can off the clock, Keep running the ball, keep running the ball. Don’t get into a passing game with them because it’s going to be difficult.”

kstater · 09-30-2008, 05:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Herm

“I kept asking my wife in bed about 1 o’clock, ‘we won right, honey?’

I'm thinking most guys are asking their wives a completely different question at 1 am in bed.

Hammock Parties · 09-30-2008, 06:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kstater

I'm thinking most guys are asking their wives a completely different question at 1 am in bed.

That's Herm's idea of dirty talk.

WE WON!
WE WON!

TELL ME WE WON, HONEY!

WE WON, HERM!

OH YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

**KcMizzou** · 09-30-2008, 05:48 PM

He said Albert's elblow was "swole". I thought of Skip.

And after this, “No, nothing is broken. Kind of when a finger comes out, except it’s an elbow.” He added, "That's bigger."

smittysbar · 09-30-2008, 06:03 PM

At the end of this, Herm was asked something about the QB position. He replied something along the lines of, he won a game, hopefully he can win another, then if he does then it will get interesting after the bye. Stay tuned, and took off.

I swear to god, if he throws another season away on Huard, I am done!

**QuikSsurfer** · 09-30-2008, 06:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smittysbar

At the end of this, Herm was asked something about the QB position. He replied something along the lines of, he won a game, hopefully he can win another, then if he does then it will get interesting after the bye. Stay tuned, and took off.

I swear to god, if he throws another season away on Huard, I am done!

Are you saying that you would rather have Thigpen behind center?

**KcMizzou** · 09-30-2008, 06:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by QuikSsurfer

Are you saying that you would rather have Thigpen behind center?

I'd still put Brodie in when he's healthy. But if he got hurt again this season, I'd be done with him. Thigpen was a bad idea in the first place.

We really, really need a quality QB.

(I know you weren't asking me.)

**QuikSsurfer** · 09-30-2008, 06:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KcMizzou

I'd still put Brodie in when he's healthy. But if he got hurt again this season, I'd be done with him. Thigpen was a bad idea in the first place.

We really, really need a quality QB.

(I know you weren't asking me.)

Brodie will be the starter when he is healthy (probably after bye week).
Herm hasn't given up on him yet, unfortunately.

I just wasn't too sure where smitty was going with that comment.

smittysbar · 09-30-2008, 06:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by QuikSsurfer

Brodie will be the starter when he is healthy (probably after bye week).
Herm hasn't given up on him yet, unfortunately.

I just wasn't too sure where smitty was going with that comment.

No I think Croyle should start when healthy, though we are pretty sure what we have in him, we have to find out for sure.

Maybe my post wasn't the clearest. Herm was tyring to say that there might be a QB controversy after the bye week if Huard plays good. Of course Herms "good" and the rest of the worlds "good" are light years apart.

**2112** · 09-30-2008, 06:38 PM

Quote:

Q: Is it a dislocation?

EDWARDS: “It came out and went back in.”

Q: Is it going to require surgery?

EDWARDS: “No, nothing is broken. Kind of when a finger comes out, except it’s an elbow.”

I don't know who got hurt. but a dislocated elbow is much more serious than a finger. what a ****ing dumbass embarrassment this ****er is. good god.

**KcMizzou** · 09-30-2008, 06:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dimension2112

I don't know who got hurt. but a dislocated elbow is much more serious than a finger. what a ****ing dumbass embarrassment this ****er is. good god.

It's like a finger... but bigger.

**SAUTO** · 09-30-2008, 07:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dimension2112

I don't know who got hurt. but a dislocated elbow is much more serious than a finger. what a ****ing dumbass embarrassment this ****er is. good god.

hey buddy its called an analogy. i dont think he would mean that its the exact same just a similar TYPE of injury

Deberg_1990 · 09-30-2008, 06:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KcMizzou

I'd still put Brodie in when he's healthy. But if he got hurt again this season, I'd be done with him. Thigpen was a bad idea in the first place.

We really, really need a quality QB.

(I know you weren't asking me.)

At this point, Huard is a more quality QB than Brodie. He simply makes more plays.

Not a Huard lover, but hes a decent game manager. Hes not as bad as alot of Chiefs fans think.

Out first draft pick next year, simply must be a QB. This shouldnt even be an argument.

**KcMizzou** · 09-30-2008, 06:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

At this point, Huard is a more quality QB than Brodie. He simply makes more plays.

Not a Huard lover, but hes a decent game manager. Hes not as bad as alot of Chiefs fans think.

Out first draft pick next year, simply must be a QB. This shouldnt even be an argument.

Agreed on all points.

Hammock Parties · 09-30-2008, 06:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

At this point, Huard is a more quality QB than Brodie. He simply makes more plays.

I don't think we've seen enough of Brodie to really say that.

09-30-2008, 05:33 PM	Topic Starter
Tribal Warfare Man of Culture Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Far Beyond Comprehension Casino cash: $-2767187	Herm Edwards Press Conference - 9/30 Herm Edwards Press Conference - 9/30 Sep 30, 2008, 5:01:12 PM Highlights HERM EDWARDS: “Carolina: a good football team, a very physical, tough football team. They’ve played in a lot of close games thus far. They’re scoring about 20 points a game and giving up about 17. They run the ball for the most part, have two good receivers in Smith and Muhammed, have two good running backs. The rookie running back has scored four touchdowns and is averaging about 4.4 yards a carry – out of Oregon. “The quarterback is a veteran guy, tough guy, a good football player. They run it, play-action pass it, play good defense. They play field position football basically. They have two kickers and their kickoff guy, Lloyd, generally kicks the ball in the endzone so generally 84% of the time you’re playing on the long field and their defense does a good job of not allowing you take long drives on them. “They’re even in the turnover ratio and when they’re plus in giveaway-takeaway they’ve won 13 consecutive home games. “It’s a game where you can’t let the score get away from you because it you do they’re just going to pound away on you. They don’t blink and they play tight games.” Q: How is Branden Albert? EDWARDS: “Branden Albert is okay and probably questionable. His elbow is pretty swollen.” Q: You don’t expect him to miss much time? EDWARDS: “I don’t know that.” Q: Is it a dislocation? EDWARDS: “It came out and went back in.” Q: Is it going to require surgery? EDWARDS: “No, nothing is broken. Kind of when a finger comes out, except it’s an elbow.” Q: Is Patrick Surtain going to be back? EDWARDS: “He’s going to try and go, he’s going to try and practice.” Q: If he’s ready are you ready to make a permanent change with Carr? EDWARDS: “We have three starting corners, I know that. I don’t know if Pat is able to play a whole game yet. We need them all. I know that. We haven’t made a decision. Q: Do you know any other team that is starting two rookie corners? EDWARDS: “No, just us.” Q: Do you think that with the win the youngsters grew up a little bit? EDWARDS: “I think they found out how hard it is to win in this league. It’s difficult. It’s not as easy as you think when you come into this league, especially when you come from programs that have won a lot of games. “The thing we did, and we talked about it all week, was having energy. You’re not going to play perfect, and don’t worry about playing perfect. It’s about playing with energy and passion and they did that. They did it for four quarters and in a close game. “You look at four of the games we played in, most of the time at halftime with the exception of Atlanta it was close. It’s a one-score game. This was the only game that we actually led. I think they understood you’ve got to keep your emotions going, you can’t worry about the score. You just got to keep playing and if you keep playing and play hard good things will happen. It happened for us and we got some breaks, we took the ball away, we had great field position. But when you play hard and with passion good things happen to you and we took advantage of it. We played very good in the Red Zone and we scored some points.” Q: Did you think the passion wasn’t there before? EDWARDS: “No, it was there. I thought it was there in the first half. In New England it was there. Oakland it was there. This game it was there. Atlanta, it got away from us because of the big plays and it was a more confident. We have so many young guys playing they kind of didn’t know what to anticipate. This week it was a little bit different and we talked about it. It was my main objective to talk to them about that. We have to just keep playing. We can’t worry about if we don’t have a lot of points at halftime. So far, we haven’t. That’s who we are right now, but you’re in the game and you’ve got to keep playing.” Q: How did Herb Taylor grade out the second half? EDWARDS: “He played good. What he can do is he’s a pretty good pass protector. That’s one of his strong suits. We found out that last year. He can pass block.” Q: Is Glenn Dorsey coming on, are you seeing it? EDWARDS: “Oh yeah, he really played good this week. He did a good job. He’s getting better. After four games now they’re kind of getting it, understanding what it takes, they’re growing up. That’s what I’m seeing. They’ve got a long way to go but what I’m seeing is they are a lot better now than they were our first game.” Q: Brian Waters made the comment after the game that the young players have learned how hard you have to work to get a win. EDWARDS: “That, and you can’t look for anybody else to help you. There’s nothing to say. It’s more about playing. I keep stressing this and I keep stressing this and I think it’s important: the one thing you have when you’re a young guy you have talent. That’s what gets you in this league. But you also have passion. You’re not going to know how to do everything correctly. That’s part of the process of learning how to play. You’ve got to keep playing with passion. Don’t let your passion die because you’ve made mistakes and are over-analyzing things, thinking like a robot, like I don’t want to make a mistake here if I do this. You can’t worry about that. You’ve got to go play. “We made some errors. We didn’t do everything right. But we played so hard we could cover up for it. If you continue to play like that you’re going to get better.” Q: Were you concerned that some of the young players were getting discouraged? EDWARDS: “I think they were questioning their talent. You can’t question that. The way you overcome that is you just have to keep playing. Just play with energy and going fast. Just to keep playing fast. “We tried to simplify some things for them, but the only way you learn is to play and the more they play the more confident they become.” Q: What’s Tamba Hali’s status? EDWARDS: “His knee was bothering, sore from last week’s game. He did a good job of going in and battling because we’re really thin at the end position, as you know. He’s not full-speed yet, but for him to show up and play I thought that helped us.” Q: Along those same lines, you are still struggling to get pressure on the quarterback. Is there anything you can do to fix that during the course of the season or is it personnel? EDWARDS: “The way you do that is to bring other people. That’s a way you can get it done. You’ve got a young end in Johnston and he played better this week. Tamba wasn’t a 100%, so that’s where it’s at. Turk is playing well and is learning too. But we’re going to have to bring pressure other ways if we’re going to get pressure on the quarterback.” Q: How much of being a pass rusher is having it or getting better? EDWARDS: “You can get better but the natural guy is a natural guy. Some guys just have good feel for it. The great ones have that, whatever it is.” Q: Tony Gonzalez talked about how disappointed he was in not getting the three yards he needed to set the all-time record in receiving yards. What are your thoughts on if he should have gotten the ball? EDWARDS: “When you’re a competitive guy — and Tony is very competitive – you wish it would have happened for him yesterday. He’s at home. It would have been a great venue for it to happen. It’s going to happen – eventually. He’s got 12 games left. “But it doesn’t happen. His competitiveness comes out and when you want something that bad and you’re that close you just figure why can’t we do it. Well, I was in a situation in that football game where when I aware of it, it was a little bit too late for us to do that. “I’ve always been a guy who believes team comes first. I couldn’t do it; it wouldn’t be right to do it. It wouldn’t be fair to me or the football team. It wasn’t anything against Tony at all. It was just the circumstances you’re in. You just can’t do it because there are a lot of things you have to answer when you do it about football and how it should be played. I believe it’s played a certain way and when you’re trying to win a game – and we hadn’t won a game in such a long time – to put that in jeopardy you can’t. You cannot do it. I wasn’t willing to do it. “I think Tony and I had a great conversation. I told him where I was at. I told him I know how you feel but the day you accept your jacket and bust at the Hall of Fame I want you to think about this conversation we had today. I bet you’ll smile. Tony’s fine. If he does it on the road I’m sure this organization will do something for him when he comes home for our fans and for everyone else. It’s well deserved. “You talk about a guy who’s going to break all the records in the history of tight ends. That’s a great tribute to him and what he’s done for this organization and he’ll be rewarded.” Q: Were you satisfied that he was no longer upset after talking to him? EDWARDS: “One thing I don’t try to do is convince people. I just tell people the truth, this is my side of the story, you have your side of the story. I’m not trying to change your opinion. It’s not about that. It’s about me telling you where I’m at and what I have to do, what my job and my responsibilities are to this football are. It was a great conversation.” Q: Considering that you guys got a victory are you surprised or disappointed he was that upset about it? EDWARDS: “I wasn’t anything. I’ve been a player. I get it. I get all that stuff. It’s taken nothing away from our win. Tony was elated we won the game, no doubt about it. “I remember this as a player. Harold Carmichael when I was in Philadelphia broke a record. They stopped the game, they brought the trophy out, they brought his wife out and he got a standing ovation in Philadelphia. We go in the locker room after the game was over with and he says, ‘Herm, I wish we had won the game. If we had won the game I would have given this back. I just wanted to win the game.’ “It’s the way it is. It just didn’t work out this time. He’ll break the record, no doubt about it and he’ll get all the accolades he deserves and he deserves a lot of them.” Q: With Tony going past another record and you rebuilding why not trade Tony and get picks for him? What’s his value in a rebuilding process? EDWARDS: “Because most people in today’s world of sports hardly ever finish with the team they start with. Tony has a chance to do that. That’s hard to do anymore. If you start somewhere and finish there and get the accolades he’s gotten so far, that’s really big. It’s big for him, big for this organization. “I think he’s going to be a Chief long as he wants to be a Chief.” Q: Do you see him influencing the young players? Do you see a Dwayne Bowe look at the work he puts in to play the way he does? EDWARDS: “He’s helping Dwayne Bowe; he’s helping (Brad) Cottam a lot. That’s what the pros do. They give something back to the game. It’s not about what you’re going to receive from the game because you receive a lot of things as a player. You receive accolades, you receive a way to make a leaving. But what do you give back to the players who follow you? I was taught that by Roman Gabriel on my walks to the practice field at training camp every day. “That’s what Roman Gabriel taught me: how to be a professional football player. What it took. ‘These are things I’m going to give you that money can’t buy. Conversations and how to practice and how to prepare.’ That was done by a pretty good quarterback. I walked with him every day and learned what it took to play in this league. That’s what pro players do. They let them know what it takes to be a professional football player.” Q: Don’t the other guys, too, see the way he works after practice? EDWARDS: “Absolutely. What are you willing to put in on your own time? At the end of the day it’s your profession. What you put in is what you get out and your talent alone is good, but if you want to be one of those top echelon players you have to work hard and that’s what he does.” Q: What is it about San Diego State in the ‘70s that it produced two NFL head coaches? EDWARDS: “Lot of double transfers to San Diego State, lot of renegade players. That’s how I ended up there. It was JC’s (junior colleges). That’s how they used to be in the ‘70s. It was JC players on those teams in the ‘70s and the ‘60s. It was a four year school but it was basically JC guys. It was kind of ironic because most of the guys were either JC guys or guys from big schools. I was at Cal and left. Little bit of a renegade school. There were some characters there.” Q: And yet it’s the place that produced two guys from the same backfield that became head coaches. Could you have imagined that? EDWARDS: “If I would have thought that I was going to be a head coach…now John Fox had a shot. I could see him being a coach. He was kind of like the captain on the defense, the safety, very analytical. You could see he was going to be a head coach. He knew then that he probably wasn’t going to play pro football. Sure enough, as soon he got out he went to small schools and started coaching. He worked his way up the chain. “For me, I was just glad someone would accept me to go to school. I was a renegade.” Q: But you had the pros in mind, too? EDWARDS: “Well, I had that ambition. I was fortunate. A lot of people helped me along the way. I took a hard road to get here. Somebody gave me a chance. I wasn’t drafted, but a lot of it was probably because I was a double transfer and had a lot of hair on my head and when the coach asked a question I asked him why we had to do it. I was probably one of those guys who was a smart aleck and had long hair. Kind of made me a free agent.” Q: Who was your coach there? EDWARDS: “Don Coryell had just left. He had just recruited me and went to St. Louis and Gilbert took over there. Madden coached there, obviously. Joe Gibbs. They all were out of San Diego State.” Q: Do you feel a weight has been lifted off your shoulders with this win? Do you sleep better? EDWARDS: “I kept asking my wife in bed about 1 o’clock, ‘we won right, honey?’ And she said, ‘yeah, we won honey.’ “I just feel for everybody: for the players, the organization, for our fans. I mean, our fans…that game felt like Arrowhead. You could just… It was different. The energy the fans brought the players felt. I think the young guys needed to feel that. They hadn’t felt that and for them it was electric. It was Arrowhead, the fans, everyone involved in the game. Now, you feel you can move on. We don’t have to worry about that any more. We can just concentrate on the game.” Q: How did you approach the Denver game? EDWARDS: “If they get 10 possessions, we need to try and hold them to two touchdowns and three field goals. What we had to do is, they do kick the ball off, because they score a lot. Hopefully it’s on field goals. We need to have our kickoff return team give us good return yardage so it’s on a short field. We have to take the ball away twice. We did it more than that. We did it four times. “We were on the plus side of the 50, six times. Out of those six times, we scored four. “The next key for us when we had the ball on offense, was to take the clock down, every time we had the ball, was to take the clock down to four seconds before you snap the football, to take time off the clock, so we could keep their offense off the field. That was a little bit of the plan we had and it came to fruition. We were going to run the ball. We weren’t going to get out of running the ball. To run the ball, you have to keep it to a one score game. You can’t go behind by two scores. If you do, they are going to put you in a position where you are going to have to throw and we didn’t want to do that. We wanted to stop them from running. We wanted them to throw the ball because we just felt if you throw the ball enough times, we can maybe take some of those balls, or hit the quarterback. We were able to. “t kind of worked out for us. The plan kind of worked. You always have these plans before the game, you change the plan. The plan was good. For us scoring early was important; we haven’t had a lead. That’s why when we got down there, I was settling for field goals because I knew where we were at. If you don’t make it and you go for it on fourth down, that deflates this whole football team. That would deflate us. I wasn’t going to do that. We wanted to score and that’s what we were able to do. “We ran the ball because we were trying to play small ball, not large ball. Take as much time as you can off the clock, Keep running the ball, keep running the ball. Don’t get into a passing game with them because it’s going to be difficult.”
Posts: 43,419

09-30-2008, 05:48 PM	#4
KcMizzou Supporter Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Parkville MO Casino cash: $10005170	He said Albert's elblow was "swole". I thought of Skip. And after this, “No, nothing is broken. Kind of when a finger comes out, except it’s an elbow.” He added, "That's bigger."
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09-30-2008, 06:03 PM	#5
smittysbar Right in the Lumberyard Danny Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: LaPlata, MO Casino cash: $10004942	At the end of this, Herm was asked something about the QB position. He replied something along the lines of, he won a game, hopefully he can win another, then if he does then it will get interesting after the bye. Stay tuned, and took off. I swear to god, if he throws another season away on Huard, I am done! __________________
Posts: 6,646