tk13
01-10-2006, 02:44 AM
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/13588571.htm
Edwards comes home to Chiefs
By ELIZABETH MERRILL
The Kansas City Star
In the place where it all started, Herman Edwards and Carl Peterson wandered around Philadelphia, the cameras 100 miles behind them, the future straight ahead. They exercised together Saturday morning. Edwards ran, Peterson tried to keep up. They ate dinner at Bookbinders on Walnut Street, their favorite old haunt.
In the City of Brotherly Love, there were no agents, no haggling, just two old friends and a few firm handshakes.
“Every single guy in Philly,” Peterson said, “I don’t care if it was a cop, a bum on the corner … would say, ‘Herman, where are you going?’ ”
The doors to the Arrowhead Club flung open at 3 o’clock Monday afternoon, and Edwards knew exactly where he was going. The flashbulbs popped, his face lit up, and the Chiefs’ new leader confidently walked into the room with his wife, Lia, and 5-month-old daughter, Gabrielle. He spotted a familiar face, smiled and said, “What’s goin’ on, old buddy?”
Edwards was going home.
The Chiefs officially announced Edwards as head coach on Monday, ending a weeklong search that pried Peterson’s longtime friend out of New York and back to the place he started nearly 17 years ago as an intern.
This was a coaching search based on new blood, old ties and gut feelings, and it ended nearly five years to the day that Peterson hired another old friend, retiring coach Dick Vermeil.
“From a personal standpoint, I have wanted to do this for a long time,” Peterson said.
“I think the future of the Kansas City Chiefs is in exceptional hands.”
About 2 p.m. Monday, Edwards signed a four-year deal and met with Vermeil, his old coach in Philadelphia. He still refers to him as “Coach Dick” and sounded very much like his mentor a few minutes into the news conference, when he talked about player relationships.
“If you make ’em a better man,” Edwards said, “they’re going to be a better football team. You know where I learned that? The man sitting back there, Dick Vermeil.
“He taught a wild-haired guy from the University of California at Berkeley how to be a better guy, to be a better man.”
Clean-cut and sharply dressed in a dark suit and red tie, Edwards arrived in Kansas City on Monday morning tired and dazed but ready to go to work. A week ago, he was finishing a 4-12 season with the Jets and planned to unwind. A few days later, he was wrapped in negotiations with Peterson and bugged out of town.
They picked Philadelphia because it was close enough for Edwards to drive there. “He couldn’t go near an airport,” Peterson said, referring to the media crush. He couldn’t pick up his phone, either, because he couldn’t talk about what was going on with the Chiefs.
Lia Edwards described the week as “challenging.” Edwards called it a “whirlwind.”
As he sat on the plane Monday morning, the events almost didn’t seem real.
“You really couldn’t believe it still,” he said. “And obviously, when you walk in here and they introduce you as the head coach, it kind of hits you that you’re back. How it happened, I don’t know. But I’m happy, and I’m very grateful.”
But it’s obvious Edwards is comfortable in his old environment. He gripped one hand on the lectern and flailed the other as he talked about defense, commitment and winning.
“There’s a difference between commitment and convenience,” Edwards said. “That’s why there’s 7-Eleven, because it’s convenient. I’m not a convenient kind of guy. I want commitment.”
He started his question-and-answer session by saying he wouldn’t talk about New York and the events that led to his departure. Edwards had wanted a contract extension, and the Jets weren’t willing to give him one.
Back in New York, Jets general manager Terry Bradway said Monday that he had mixed emotions about finding a new coach.
“I thought we had a pretty good run,” Bradway said of Edwards. “He represented the program with class and dignity.
“This was Herm’s decision to go to Kansas City, and we allowed that to happen. … The one thing that is constant in the NFL is change, and you have to embrace change.”
That’s how, one week after his Jets season was over, Edwards was back in Kansas City. A handful of players and coaches listened intently to him in the back of a packed conference room. The day had a relaxed feel of familiarity. Edwards had the energy of a preacher at the pulpit.
At one point during the news conference, Bobby Bell, a Chiefs Hall of Famer, shouted a question from the back of the room.
“Hey, Coach,” Bell said, “I’ve got two new hips. I’m ready to play.”
Edwards laughed and fired back.
“Hey, Bobby, you can always play for me, my friend. On third downs, you’re coming in, baby.”
Bell ended the banter by saying, “Welcome to Kansas City.”
Edwards had a losing record in New York, but he did something that hasn’t been done since 1993 in Kansas City — he won a playoff game. He took the Jets to three postseasons in five years.
He’s a mix of a handful of mentors, from Vermeil to Tony Dungy to Marty Schottenheimer. He recalled the 1996 season, when Dungy pried him away from Kansas City to be on his staff at Tampa Bay. The Buccaneers were getting shelled by Brett Favre, and after the fourth touchdown, Edwards walked over to Dungy on the sideline and said, “Why did you do this to me?”
It eventually helped Edwards get his first head-coaching gig in New York. And it helped him come home.
“The one thing I do know,” Edwards said, “and I will promise you this — the players that play for this football team, they will play for the name on the side of the helmet, not the name on the back of the jersey.”
Edwards walked away from the lectern and made the rounds, shaking dozens of hands. Carol Vermeil held baby Gabrielle. Chiefs quarterback Trent Green shook Edwards’ hand and said he’d meet up with him today.
Turns out Edwards won’t be getting any offseason rest. He’ll meet with the players and interview the assistants. He’d visit with Peterson on Monday night and figure out what to do next. He’d try to get his head to stop spinning.
Vermeil caught the scene from the back of the room, and for a moment, it must have seemed familiar. A friend was coming back to Kansas City. Vermeil could head off to his vineyards in peace.
“It’s special,” Vermeil said. “It’s like seeing your older son get to do something that he deserves the right to do. And you know that he’ll do it well. Will he please everybody? No. He won’t try to. But he’ll do a hell of a job.”
Edwards comes home to Chiefs
By ELIZABETH MERRILL
The Kansas City Star
In the place where it all started, Herman Edwards and Carl Peterson wandered around Philadelphia, the cameras 100 miles behind them, the future straight ahead. They exercised together Saturday morning. Edwards ran, Peterson tried to keep up. They ate dinner at Bookbinders on Walnut Street, their favorite old haunt.
In the City of Brotherly Love, there were no agents, no haggling, just two old friends and a few firm handshakes.
“Every single guy in Philly,” Peterson said, “I don’t care if it was a cop, a bum on the corner … would say, ‘Herman, where are you going?’ ”
The doors to the Arrowhead Club flung open at 3 o’clock Monday afternoon, and Edwards knew exactly where he was going. The flashbulbs popped, his face lit up, and the Chiefs’ new leader confidently walked into the room with his wife, Lia, and 5-month-old daughter, Gabrielle. He spotted a familiar face, smiled and said, “What’s goin’ on, old buddy?”
Edwards was going home.
The Chiefs officially announced Edwards as head coach on Monday, ending a weeklong search that pried Peterson’s longtime friend out of New York and back to the place he started nearly 17 years ago as an intern.
This was a coaching search based on new blood, old ties and gut feelings, and it ended nearly five years to the day that Peterson hired another old friend, retiring coach Dick Vermeil.
“From a personal standpoint, I have wanted to do this for a long time,” Peterson said.
“I think the future of the Kansas City Chiefs is in exceptional hands.”
About 2 p.m. Monday, Edwards signed a four-year deal and met with Vermeil, his old coach in Philadelphia. He still refers to him as “Coach Dick” and sounded very much like his mentor a few minutes into the news conference, when he talked about player relationships.
“If you make ’em a better man,” Edwards said, “they’re going to be a better football team. You know where I learned that? The man sitting back there, Dick Vermeil.
“He taught a wild-haired guy from the University of California at Berkeley how to be a better guy, to be a better man.”
Clean-cut and sharply dressed in a dark suit and red tie, Edwards arrived in Kansas City on Monday morning tired and dazed but ready to go to work. A week ago, he was finishing a 4-12 season with the Jets and planned to unwind. A few days later, he was wrapped in negotiations with Peterson and bugged out of town.
They picked Philadelphia because it was close enough for Edwards to drive there. “He couldn’t go near an airport,” Peterson said, referring to the media crush. He couldn’t pick up his phone, either, because he couldn’t talk about what was going on with the Chiefs.
Lia Edwards described the week as “challenging.” Edwards called it a “whirlwind.”
As he sat on the plane Monday morning, the events almost didn’t seem real.
“You really couldn’t believe it still,” he said. “And obviously, when you walk in here and they introduce you as the head coach, it kind of hits you that you’re back. How it happened, I don’t know. But I’m happy, and I’m very grateful.”
But it’s obvious Edwards is comfortable in his old environment. He gripped one hand on the lectern and flailed the other as he talked about defense, commitment and winning.
“There’s a difference between commitment and convenience,” Edwards said. “That’s why there’s 7-Eleven, because it’s convenient. I’m not a convenient kind of guy. I want commitment.”
He started his question-and-answer session by saying he wouldn’t talk about New York and the events that led to his departure. Edwards had wanted a contract extension, and the Jets weren’t willing to give him one.
Back in New York, Jets general manager Terry Bradway said Monday that he had mixed emotions about finding a new coach.
“I thought we had a pretty good run,” Bradway said of Edwards. “He represented the program with class and dignity.
“This was Herm’s decision to go to Kansas City, and we allowed that to happen. … The one thing that is constant in the NFL is change, and you have to embrace change.”
That’s how, one week after his Jets season was over, Edwards was back in Kansas City. A handful of players and coaches listened intently to him in the back of a packed conference room. The day had a relaxed feel of familiarity. Edwards had the energy of a preacher at the pulpit.
At one point during the news conference, Bobby Bell, a Chiefs Hall of Famer, shouted a question from the back of the room.
“Hey, Coach,” Bell said, “I’ve got two new hips. I’m ready to play.”
Edwards laughed and fired back.
“Hey, Bobby, you can always play for me, my friend. On third downs, you’re coming in, baby.”
Bell ended the banter by saying, “Welcome to Kansas City.”
Edwards had a losing record in New York, but he did something that hasn’t been done since 1993 in Kansas City — he won a playoff game. He took the Jets to three postseasons in five years.
He’s a mix of a handful of mentors, from Vermeil to Tony Dungy to Marty Schottenheimer. He recalled the 1996 season, when Dungy pried him away from Kansas City to be on his staff at Tampa Bay. The Buccaneers were getting shelled by Brett Favre, and after the fourth touchdown, Edwards walked over to Dungy on the sideline and said, “Why did you do this to me?”
It eventually helped Edwards get his first head-coaching gig in New York. And it helped him come home.
“The one thing I do know,” Edwards said, “and I will promise you this — the players that play for this football team, they will play for the name on the side of the helmet, not the name on the back of the jersey.”
Edwards walked away from the lectern and made the rounds, shaking dozens of hands. Carol Vermeil held baby Gabrielle. Chiefs quarterback Trent Green shook Edwards’ hand and said he’d meet up with him today.
Turns out Edwards won’t be getting any offseason rest. He’ll meet with the players and interview the assistants. He’d visit with Peterson on Monday night and figure out what to do next. He’d try to get his head to stop spinning.
Vermeil caught the scene from the back of the room, and for a moment, it must have seemed familiar. A friend was coming back to Kansas City. Vermeil could head off to his vineyards in peace.
“It’s special,” Vermeil said. “It’s like seeing your older son get to do something that he deserves the right to do. And you know that he’ll do it well. Will he please everybody? No. He won’t try to. But he’ll do a hell of a job.”