Herm Edwards did his final SportsCenter segment on Friday morning before heading to Tempe to try and build Arizona State football into a national powerhouse. He offered his insight about the Atlanta Falcons 20-17 win over the New Orleans Saints on Thursday Night Football. Then his co-host Elle Duncan flashed back 40 years to 1977 and put up a video of Herms first NFL career interception as a Philadelphia Eagles cornerback against the LA Rams. Former Jets star Joe Namath was the quarterback who threw the pick.
Hes trying to throw it to Harold Jackson on the go route and I jumped up and caught it, Herm said. The crazy thing about this is that when the game ended I had the ball wrapped up and I was walking up the tunnel with some veteran guys and I asked them, Hey, you think if I ask Joe to sign this ball that he would sign it? They said, Hey rookie (are you crazy?)…Joe wont sign that football.
But I remember it like it was yesterday, Herm said. Its kind of ironic that the last time the Eagles actually played the Rams in this stadium (LA Coliseum) I was part of it.
The 10-2 Eagles will meet the 9-3 NFC West-leading Rams. Its the battle of the two rising signal callers in Jared Goff and Carson Wentz.
Yes, Edwards has been around the game a long time and despite a stress-free, fruitful career as an NFL media guru, the lure of the game was unsurmountable. He will be missed in and around the ESPN offices. His colleagues have already shown him that much.
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This is a place that I call my second home for nine seasons and learned a lot of football,” Herm said. “Met a lot of good folks here. ESPN, the worldwide leader, has allowed me to come into homes and families and talk about football, the game that I love. I have a wonderful passion for it and I’m going back on the grass to coach it.
