PHILADELPHIA – Herman Edwards joked the other day that when he brought the Jets players into Veterans Stadium for the team’s walk-through, he was going to tell them a few stories about the great things that happened to him during his days as an Eagles cornerback.
Last night’s Jets-Eagles preseason game, the Jets’ last tuneup before the regular season, marked the back end of a nostalgic doubleheader for Edwards in less than a week.
Last Saturday, the Jets played the Giants at Giants Stadium, the site of the most memorable play Edwards made in his NFL career – as an Eagle.
So, when Edwards looked across the expanse of Giants Stadium in last Saturday’s preseason game and saw the Giants lined up on the home side of the field, a million thoughts flooded his fertile mind.
Edwards’ benchmark play, of course was “The Fumble” – the singular play that perhaps defines him more than any other occurrence in his NFL career.
The date was Nov. 19, 1978. The event was an otherwise innocuous regular-season game between the Giants and Eagles at Giants Stadium.
You remember it whether you are a Giants fan or not – Joe Pisarcik making that infamous botched handoff to Larry Csonka that was picked up by Edwards and returned 26 yards in the final seconds of the game for the winning TD in a 19-17 Eagles victory.
Edwards, the Jets’ rookie head coach, always talks to his players about what he learned from his late father, Herman, regarding “doing the corners” in reference to being thorough in everything you do in life.
Well, instead of assuming that game was over, Edwards was doing the corners – paying keen attention to that last play in case something happened, even while casually chatting with Doug Kotar, the late Giants’ back.
Something, of course, did happen and the rest is history. That play is one of the most replayed pieces of tape in NFL Films history.
“The yardage gets a little longer,” Edwards was saying this week. “Some guy asks, ‘Was it an 80-yard run?’ I say, ‘Nah, it was 85.’ It’s one of those things that comes up, no doubt about it.”
That magnifies Edwards’ compassion for Pisarcik, whose career will always be remembered for that failed handoff and for those Giants failures in the late 70s.
“I feel bad for Joe, because there were a lot of things that led up to that play that were never talked about,” Edwards said. “You could see when they broke the huddle there was confusion. I was talking to Kotar and he said, ‘We’re falling on (the ball),’ and we were shaking hands, saying, ‘See you in three weeks when we play in Philly.’
“All the while, though, I’m looking at him but I’m also looking at Joe,” Edwards went on. “I see the ball popping out and I said, ‘This is interesting.’ At that point it was all reaction.
“You never realize the impact of a play like that until … well, like right now we’re still talking about it. That’s why I always tell guys, ‘You never know.’ I look at [Bill] Buckner. That’s all they ever talk about. Yeah, it went through his legs, but he had a pretty good career.”
Since “The Fumble,” Edwards has scored in a much bigger way with regard to a classy coaching career that is only just beginning.
Tonight is merely a reminder of how far he has come from being an undrafted free-agent cornerback who played 10 years without missing a game or a single practice to one of the most important and high-profile head coaching jobs in his profession.
His involvement in “The Fumble” stands as a the most-publicized testimonial to what Edwards is about as a man and as a player and coach.
“When you speak of Herman Edwards you remember him for the Pisarcik fumble,” said Bill Bradley, the former Eagles Pro-Bowl cornerback and current Jets defensive backs coach on Edwards’ staff. “But if you ever had any interaction with him, you remember him for his values.”
