TinyEvel
08-22-2006, 03:56 PM
Q&A with HERM EDWARDS - 8/22
Aug 22, 2006, 3:00:59 PM
TRAINING CAMP
Q: Looks like you had some pretty good energy this morning?
HERM EDWARDS: “Yeah, I told the players what we were going to try and do this weekend is we’re going to play the game in here (practice fields) and let the fans watch it on the Jumbo-tron (in Arrowhead) because we’ve got a lot of energy the way we’re been practicing and the way we conducted training camp. (laughs) It was a pretty physical camp and today, too. The players have been very good that way. What we have to do now is transfer it to Saturday night and playing at home will help them. But that alone won’t do; you’ve got to play with a lot of energy and a lot of passion. And, we need to have some focus, especially with our first groups.”
Q: What’s it going to feel like for you in your first time as the head coach at Arrowhead Stadium?
EDWARDS: “Obviously, I’ll be excited. It’s a pre-season game, but I like football and anytime you can go into the arena and compete you’ve got to enjoy that. That’s what I told the players. It’s a game, go enjoy it; you get to go play ball. It doesn’t matter it’s a pre-season game.
“I’m going to enjoy it. We’ve great fan base here. I’m pretty sure the fans will be excited about seeing these guys and these guys have to perform well. I think they’ve got the mindset to play a lot better.”
Q: There’s been so much talk about the philosophy that you’re bringing here. How important is that opposed to the people you get to play it?
EDWARDS: “I think it works hand and hand. I think the great thing for me is I’m following a guy that our philosophies are a little bit similar in how we do things. Now, Dick’s changed a little bit. He changed on me when he went to the Rams. He had this high-falutin’ offense that he brought here. We talked about when I was in Tampa and played (the Rams) in the (NFC) championship game. But things changed and all of a sudden (the score that game) was 6-5. I said, you’ve still got to play defense somewhere along the line.
“But they’ve been good around here offensively, as we all know, and we’re still going to be good offensively. I don’t want people to think that I’m trying to (take) air out of the ball. I’m not trying to do that at all. I’m basically now trying to make some first downs so we can stay on the field. We haven’t seen our offense because we haven’t converted third downs, so we’ve got to do a better job of that.
“The good thing I learned from Dick and what he left me here was he left a bunch of good character players. Character people know when you change a coaching staff you’re going to have to change some. These guys have done that and have adapted pretty well. It’s just a matter of continuing to build on it and go from there.”
Q: Where is William Bartee?
EDWARDS: “William Bartee is on PUP (physically unable to perform) at this point.”
Q: Is he coming off?
EDWARDS: “I doubt it at this point.”
Q: Yesterday Keyaron Fox was running with the first team defense. Today, Kendrell Bell was back.
EDWARDS: “Both those guys are competing to be the starter and it’s a good race. It’s been very, very competitive and that’s what we said when we came here: we’re going to make it a competitive atmosphere at all the positions.”
Q: I asked you yesterday about Priest Holmes. How come he isn’t here working out?
EDWARDS: “Cause he’s PUP. He can’t.”
Q: He can’t be here working out?
EDWARDS: “No, he can’t work out. There’s no point. He can’t do anything. There’s no need for him to be here.”
Q: I know you don’t like the use of swear words. But do you think every good defense needs to have some guy who is a bad a- -?
EDWARDS: “We’ve got some guys over there. They say some things and they say them around me, too. But I just think you don’t want to make it where it’s who you are every day you come to practice, every day you come to the locker room. You don’t need to do that. That doesn’t make you a, what you say, a bad…a tough guy. I don’t want to say the word.
“I look at Mike Singletary. He’s a pretty good football player and a pretty tough guy. He didn’t use a lot of that language. Ronnie Lott didn’t use a lot of that language. A lot of great players that I’ve seen and some I actually played with – Bill Bergey was a heck of a linebacker – didn’t use it. I just think you’ve got to choose your words and sometimes they come out, but you just don’t want to make it a way of doing things. There are too many people who watch pro football – especially young kids – that you don’t want to make it an example that to be a tough player you’ve got use bad language.
“That’s like the bully. I learned that in junior high school. Figure out who the bully was ‘cause the bully was always the guy talking. I learned early in junior high school: find out who the bully is and walk up to him and punch him right in the face because the bully really doesn’t want to fight. When you punch him in the face and knock him down you don’t have to worry about the bully anymore.
“So, I don’t believe in all that stuff. What I say is if you’re a tough guy the great thing about football is you get to go on field and show it.”
Q: What if he gets back up?
EDWARDS: “I haven’t found too many bullies to bother me after that.”
Q: You talked a couple of days ago about urgency. Is it too early to say what these guys are made of because they haven’t played well?
EDWARDS: “No, they just haven’t played with a lot of urgency. They need to do that and that’s a mindset. You’d like to win all of them and I think the guys will have a sense of urgency. But I look at (Indianapolis coach) Tony (Dungy) and what’s happened to him in the pre-season. I’m sure he’s shaking his head. Playing at home they’ll have a sense and I’m just a bit disappointed we didn’t have that on the road. That’s something we’re going to have to deal with. It’s something that’s going to happen eight times.”
Q: Is there something that happens on the road, because you’ve talked a lot about that here recently?
EDWARDS: “Yeah, I look at the history and watched it unfold in two games. It’s pre-season. I understand that and the two places we went they game-planned and we didn’t. We’re trying to evaluate players and we’re trying to make it an equal playing field for everyone. I look into that and take it for what it’s worth. I just want them to play with better energy. That’s all.”
Q: Anything new injury-wise?
EDWARDS: “No, obviously Tamba (Hali) is going to play Brodie Croyle is going to play. That obviously helps you.”
Q: How much is Brodie going to play?
EDWARDS: “Ah, he’ll play. You’ll be surprised. I’ll just leave it at that.”
Q: Is Keyaron Fox going to run with the ones?
EDWARDS: “Well, we’ll probably rotate them. I think you’ve got to do that by putting them in with the first unit and see how they react.”
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Aug 22, 2006, 3:00:59 PM
TRAINING CAMP
Q: Looks like you had some pretty good energy this morning?
HERM EDWARDS: “Yeah, I told the players what we were going to try and do this weekend is we’re going to play the game in here (practice fields) and let the fans watch it on the Jumbo-tron (in Arrowhead) because we’ve got a lot of energy the way we’re been practicing and the way we conducted training camp. (laughs) It was a pretty physical camp and today, too. The players have been very good that way. What we have to do now is transfer it to Saturday night and playing at home will help them. But that alone won’t do; you’ve got to play with a lot of energy and a lot of passion. And, we need to have some focus, especially with our first groups.”
Q: What’s it going to feel like for you in your first time as the head coach at Arrowhead Stadium?
EDWARDS: “Obviously, I’ll be excited. It’s a pre-season game, but I like football and anytime you can go into the arena and compete you’ve got to enjoy that. That’s what I told the players. It’s a game, go enjoy it; you get to go play ball. It doesn’t matter it’s a pre-season game.
“I’m going to enjoy it. We’ve great fan base here. I’m pretty sure the fans will be excited about seeing these guys and these guys have to perform well. I think they’ve got the mindset to play a lot better.”
Q: There’s been so much talk about the philosophy that you’re bringing here. How important is that opposed to the people you get to play it?
EDWARDS: “I think it works hand and hand. I think the great thing for me is I’m following a guy that our philosophies are a little bit similar in how we do things. Now, Dick’s changed a little bit. He changed on me when he went to the Rams. He had this high-falutin’ offense that he brought here. We talked about when I was in Tampa and played (the Rams) in the (NFC) championship game. But things changed and all of a sudden (the score that game) was 6-5. I said, you’ve still got to play defense somewhere along the line.
“But they’ve been good around here offensively, as we all know, and we’re still going to be good offensively. I don’t want people to think that I’m trying to (take) air out of the ball. I’m not trying to do that at all. I’m basically now trying to make some first downs so we can stay on the field. We haven’t seen our offense because we haven’t converted third downs, so we’ve got to do a better job of that.
“The good thing I learned from Dick and what he left me here was he left a bunch of good character players. Character people know when you change a coaching staff you’re going to have to change some. These guys have done that and have adapted pretty well. It’s just a matter of continuing to build on it and go from there.”
Q: Where is William Bartee?
EDWARDS: “William Bartee is on PUP (physically unable to perform) at this point.”
Q: Is he coming off?
EDWARDS: “I doubt it at this point.”
Q: Yesterday Keyaron Fox was running with the first team defense. Today, Kendrell Bell was back.
EDWARDS: “Both those guys are competing to be the starter and it’s a good race. It’s been very, very competitive and that’s what we said when we came here: we’re going to make it a competitive atmosphere at all the positions.”
Q: I asked you yesterday about Priest Holmes. How come he isn’t here working out?
EDWARDS: “Cause he’s PUP. He can’t.”
Q: He can’t be here working out?
EDWARDS: “No, he can’t work out. There’s no point. He can’t do anything. There’s no need for him to be here.”
Q: I know you don’t like the use of swear words. But do you think every good defense needs to have some guy who is a bad a- -?
EDWARDS: “We’ve got some guys over there. They say some things and they say them around me, too. But I just think you don’t want to make it where it’s who you are every day you come to practice, every day you come to the locker room. You don’t need to do that. That doesn’t make you a, what you say, a bad…a tough guy. I don’t want to say the word.
“I look at Mike Singletary. He’s a pretty good football player and a pretty tough guy. He didn’t use a lot of that language. Ronnie Lott didn’t use a lot of that language. A lot of great players that I’ve seen and some I actually played with – Bill Bergey was a heck of a linebacker – didn’t use it. I just think you’ve got to choose your words and sometimes they come out, but you just don’t want to make it a way of doing things. There are too many people who watch pro football – especially young kids – that you don’t want to make it an example that to be a tough player you’ve got use bad language.
“That’s like the bully. I learned that in junior high school. Figure out who the bully was ‘cause the bully was always the guy talking. I learned early in junior high school: find out who the bully is and walk up to him and punch him right in the face because the bully really doesn’t want to fight. When you punch him in the face and knock him down you don’t have to worry about the bully anymore.
“So, I don’t believe in all that stuff. What I say is if you’re a tough guy the great thing about football is you get to go on field and show it.”
Q: What if he gets back up?
EDWARDS: “I haven’t found too many bullies to bother me after that.”
Q: You talked a couple of days ago about urgency. Is it too early to say what these guys are made of because they haven’t played well?
EDWARDS: “No, they just haven’t played with a lot of urgency. They need to do that and that’s a mindset. You’d like to win all of them and I think the guys will have a sense of urgency. But I look at (Indianapolis coach) Tony (Dungy) and what’s happened to him in the pre-season. I’m sure he’s shaking his head. Playing at home they’ll have a sense and I’m just a bit disappointed we didn’t have that on the road. That’s something we’re going to have to deal with. It’s something that’s going to happen eight times.”
Q: Is there something that happens on the road, because you’ve talked a lot about that here recently?
EDWARDS: “Yeah, I look at the history and watched it unfold in two games. It’s pre-season. I understand that and the two places we went they game-planned and we didn’t. We’re trying to evaluate players and we’re trying to make it an equal playing field for everyone. I look into that and take it for what it’s worth. I just want them to play with better energy. That’s all.”
Q: Anything new injury-wise?
EDWARDS: “No, obviously Tamba (Hali) is going to play Brodie Croyle is going to play. That obviously helps you.”
Q: How much is Brodie going to play?
EDWARDS: “Ah, he’ll play. You’ll be surprised. I’ll just leave it at that.”
Q: Is Keyaron Fox going to run with the ones?
EDWARDS: “Well, we’ll probably rotate them. I think you’ve got to do that by putting them in with the first unit and see how they react.”
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