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Name: Jeff Age: 49 Vessel: Mostly the "Two Kinds O' Pie" Location: Laguna Niguel Job:Bumming rides off of KCKEV Bio: I love SOCAL - and MISSOURI! | Outside perspective on Donnie Edwards - LONG READ
Thought you Charger guys might be interested in this read from the KC Star about Edwards. Still a lot of love for him in KC...
Jeff
Former Chiefs linebacker still charged up
Donnie Edwards wants to stay with hometown San Diego, but it may be out of his hands.
By RANDY COVITZ
The Kansas City Star
SAN DIEGO | Linebacker Donnie Edwards’ game as a 33-year-old elder statesman with the San Diego Chargers looks remarkably similar to the active, athletic 25-year-old who thrived with the Chiefs.
He speeds across the field sideline to sideline in pursuit of the football, and as sure as the weather is sunny and mild in Edwards’ native San Diego, he’s led the Chargers in tackles for the fifth straight season while intercepting a few passes along the way.
During the last 10 seasons, Edwards has made more tackles (1,442) than any linebacker in football except Miami’s Zach Thomas, and he has started 134 consecutive NFL games, including all 77 since joining the Chargers in 2001.
But instead of showing Edwards the respect merited by such consistency and dependability, the Chargers are about to show him the door.
Edwards is in the last year of the five-year, $18.75 million contract he signed in 2001, and when he asked for an extension during the offseason, general manager A.J. Smith responded by shopping him around the league before the draft. Smith was smart enough not to give away or release Edwards, so when he didn’t receive the package of second- and third-round draft picks he sought, Smith kept his defense’s leader for another season of 100-plus tackles.
“I was born and raised a Charger,” Edwards said. “This is where I’m from. I don’t want to go anywhere else. This is where I want to play and finish my career. I tell myself to go out there and play football and worry about all the other stuff when that time comes.”
That was the advice from Chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer, who drafted Edwards in Kansas City in 1996 and brought him to San Diego when the Chiefs, in a decision former coach Dick Vermeil later regretted, let him walk as an unrestricted free agent.
“To his credit, he’s put it aside,” said Schottenheimer, who is caught in the middle of the contract situation. “Like I told him at the beginning of it, I said, ‘You have no control over it right now. You put it aside, and we’ll see what happens.’ ”
But it’s a foregone conclusion that when the Chargers’ playoff run is finished, so will be Edwards’ time in San Diego, where he sneaked into Jack Murphy Stadium as a youngster for Chargers games and played in a Little League all-star baseball game on the Padres’ diamond in 1984.
“I want Donnie to stay around,” said Shawne Merriman, a Pro Bowl outside linebacker and NFL sack co-leader. “He’s a game-changer. I was happy to be around him for another year. I know it’s a business and at any point in time, anybody can go. I would like to see him around as long as possible.”
Smith has declined to discuss Edwards’ status since training camp, but in April told reporters, “I’m not interested in Donnie Edwards’ seven-year tackling statistics. I’m only interested in the type of player he is and the player he may be in the future.”
Edwards answered the only way he knew, by racking up dozens of tackles a week for the AFC West champion Chargers, capped by a 20-tackle performance, according to coaches’ grades, in a win at Buffalo on Dec. 3. Going into Sunday’s game against the Chiefs, he leads the Chargers with 118 tackles and is the only linebacker in the NFL with more than 100 tackles in each of the last 10 years.
“We call him the human tackling machine,” outside linebacker Shaun Phillips said. “That’s what he does. He’s the one who taught me about consistency. He plays at a consistent level every single game, and he’s been doing it for years.”
During his career with the Chiefs, Edwards, just 6 feet 2 and 227 pounds, played middle linebacker in 4-3 schemes — taking on 300-pound offensive linemen and 250-pound fullbacks — as well as outside linebacker.
He led the Chiefs in tackles for four straight seasons, averaging 145 per year as a starter, and intercepted 10 passes, returning two for touchdowns.
“I just try to get to the ball,” said Edwards, an inside linebacker in the Chargers’ 3-4 scheme. “I try to make every tackle. I anticipate plays. Out of certain formations I anticipate what I could do. Everyone has a gap. I try to make sure my gap is taken care of. I want to make sure I have my responsibility but also have a chance to make a play.”
Though he’s always been undersized, Edwards has not missed a start since a hip injury kept him out of a Chiefs game against Pittsburgh on Oct. 26, 1998. His streak of 134 consecutive starts is the sixth-longest among active players.
“When I was a young player in Kansas City, a lot of veterans told me to take care of my body,” Edwards said. “It’s the only one you have. When your body goes, your play goes. Guys like Marvcus Patton told me to lift. A lot of times during the season you don’t want to lift weights because your body is tired, you’re sore, you’re achy, but that’s how you prevent yourself from getting injured by keeping all those muscles and tendons tight.”
Edwards banged up his right elbow on Merriman’s helmet early in last Sunday’s win over Denver, but the Chargers’ success this season has taken a little sting out of the aches and pains of football and the frustration about his future in San Diego.
Perhaps most disconcerting is while Edwards has been productive on the field and a pillar in the community, devoting hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars through his foundation and tireless charity work, several other Chargers have embarrassed the organization. Linebacker Steve Foley was involved in a police shooting and cornerback Terrence Kiel was arrested earlier this season for shipping prescription cough syrup to Texas.
But it’s Edwards who may be persona non grata at the end of the season.
“I’m not taken for granted,” he said. “I am what I am. I learned a lot from guys who played the game before me, guys like Derrick Thomas who taught me about giving back to the community. That’s been a big focal point in my life. I try to handle myself the best I can with class and be the best football player and person I can be.”
__________________
JEFF
I MISS LUCY! |
asides LT and Rivers.
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