GRETZ: What You Don't Know About Herm

Sep 25, 2006, 6:39:36 AM by Bob Gretz - FAQ

OK, so you’ve listened and watched Herm Edwards over the last nine months and you’ve heard the pundits call him “The Preacher,” label him as conservative and question his clock-management ability.

But those labels are the handiwork of a media more interested in putting people into an easy to handle box rather than finding out what makes the man tick.

For instance, did you know that on game day, Edwards wears dress shoes on the sidelines, not athletics shoes? In today’s NFL, where coaches aren’t allowed to wear a tie and must wear league-approved clothing, most of the top guys wear basic sneakers in the team colors or black football shoes.

Not Herm.

“I wear shoes that match what I’m wearing,” he said. “I don’t wear sneakers. These shoes have rubber soles, so they aren’t really dressy shoes.”

But they sure aren’t the usual foot ware seen on NFL sidelines.

“Have you noticed my belt?” Edwards asked. “It’s got a nice silver buckle on it with the Chiefs emblem.”

Not only does he wear dress shoes on the field, but also before every game, in the locker room, Edwards shines them himself.

“That goes back to my days as a kid when I used to sign shoes at the Army base,” said Edwards, recalling one of his first jobs, taking care of shoes at Ft. Ord in California. “I still like to work on them and give them a nice shine.”

Do you know about the Fig Newtons? No matter where Edwards is, whether in his office, or his home, or at training camp, there’s a package of Fig Newton cookies close by. It’s usually in the refrigerator and the package is not opened and the cookies are never eaten.

“It’s just a reminder to me of my days back in college when you didn’t have very much money and all we had around the place to eat was Fig Newtons,” Edwards said. “Sometimes that was breakfast, lunch and dinner. One thing about a Fig Newton, it will fill you up.

“I never eat them now. My son came home one time about two years ago and he knows the story, but he was hungry and he couldn’t help himself and he opened up the fig newtons and ate some. My wife looked at him, what did you just do? He’s like ‘I know, I know, we’ve got to get to the store and get a new package. We’ve got to take care of this before Dad gets home.’

“I always told myself, no matter what happens, if you have Fig Newtons in the refrigerator, you’ll never go hungry. Since then, I’ve always had them. They are a reminder to me of where I came from. If something happens in the world and there’s total chaos, I know one thing, my family will be fine because we’ll still have Fig Newtons.”

Did you know that one of the defining moments of Herm Edwards’ life came as a child, when he sat down in front of the television and watched an old black and white movie: “Jim Thorpe: All-American.”

“Burt Lancaster was Jim Thorpe and it told his whole story and I remember watching that and thinking that I wanted to be an athlete,” said Edwards. “He was probably the greatest athlete we ever had in this country and he went through a lot over his life and a lot of things happened to him.

“But that movie really stuck with me. It really pushed me in the direction that I ultimately ended up traveling and that’s as an athlete.”

Yet, that movie is not his favorite. That would be “The Ten Commandments.” “Now that’s a movie,” Edwards said with a laugh. “Charlton Heston leading his people through the desert. That comes on and I can’t turn away. What a great, great story.”

There are a lot of great stories that make up the man named Herm Edwards. Now you know a few more.

The opinions offered in this column do not necessarily reflect those of the Kansas City Chiefs.

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A former beat reporter who covered the Pittsburgh Steelers during their glory years, Gretz covered the Chiefs for the Kansas City Star for nine years. He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Board of Selectors. He has been the senior columnist for the Chiefs web site since its inception.