Edwards' passion, work ethic make him No. 1By Tom Friend
ESPN The Magazine
I'd draft the dead man's son before the policeman's son. I'd pick the player's son over the head coach's nephew. I'd think twice about the Miami kids, but I'd be all over the Auburn kids. I'd pay attention to strength, but more to the strength coach.
The NFL draft, if you do it right, is
investigative reporting. It's seeing through the con and also the 40 time. It's not watching the athlete on the field, it's somehow following him home to see what he does off of it. It's more personality test than Wonderlic test. At the scouting combine, teams will ask players, "If someone passes you, at high speed, on the highway, do you chase them or let them go?" Or they'll ask, "Would you rather be a cat or a dog?" It makes me wonder how they keep their jobs.
It's like what's going on in Chicago. The Bears, I'm told, are afraid of Braylon Edwards because they swung and missed on another Michigan receiver, David Terrell. And also because they've seen Edwards drop a ball or three. But the draft shouldn't be about fear, i
t should be about research.
You talk to people. You find out that Braylon Edwards is so hyper before games, he can not sleep. That, the night before games, he'll call his mother and father at 2 a.m., wide awake. That, because of it, he tends to drop passes early in games, because he's still foaming at the mouth. "I'll never forget his first Notre Dame game," says Edwards' father, Stan, a former NFL player. "He was hyperventilating; his mouth was caked white. Took him a whole quarter to come down. So he'll drop the first or second ball to him sometimes. It's like clockwork almost. Gets it out of his system."
Brett Favre gets overexcited early in games just like that, but it takes some probing to find these tidbits out. You think Lovie Smith talked to Edwards' dad? See, now I understand why Tom Coughlin, when he took over the Jaguars, nearly hired our colleague, Chris Mortensen, to help him with research. Football is the one sport for which heart and character is arguably more relevant than skill. And so, when it comes to Saturday's top 10 picks, teams need to throw away the 40 times and pay more attention to a players' life and times.
Like I did.
Edwards
• 1. San Francisco – Scouts, Inc. pick: Alex Smith, QB, Utah. The right pick: Braylon Edwards, WR, Michigan.
Yes, the player's son should go first overall. People don't realize that Edwards, besides being an obvious talent, has a freakish work ethic. While he watches TV in the evening, he'll do flexibility work, or sit-ups or pushups. He refuses to just lie down on the couch.
The only time he'll sit still, in fact, is when he pops in a video tape of Jerry Rice. His father has compiled an extensive football video library, and Rice is the one player who gives Edwards the chills. He noticed how Rice would run just as hard in practice as in games, and that became Edwards' approach at Michigan. That's why he wore Rice's No. 80 his first two years in Ann Arbor. That's why sometimes he'd head to the track, after practice, and run extra sprints by himself. That's why Michigan coach Lloyd Carr says no one is as gung ho as Braylon Edwards.
The kid has been thinking like a pro player for years. In college, he got a massage after every game, which is what the NFL studs do. His dad, who used to play for the Oilers and Lions, introduced him to the Rams' Torry Holt, and Holt took him out to the field to tutor him. Holt let him have it, too, critiqued his pass patterns, and Edwards wasn't offended at all. Now, every day, he's working on hitches and digs and post corners, working on disguising his routes. He's proud to have Randy Moss's downfield speed, but also wants the route-running feet of Marvin Harrison.
He's also the kind of kid who cried after Michigan losses, who played his junior season with a broken finger, but never mentioned a word of it. After games, while wearing a suit and tie, he'd throw passes to little kids in the Michigan parking lot. When the Lions' M&M Boys, (Matt) Millen and (Steve) Mariucci, interviewed him this spring, they asked if he'd mind going to a team that already had Charles Rogers and Roy Williams. And Edwards answered: "No offense to those guys, but I love the game too much, and I'm gonna play." This could be the one player in the draft who has it all: Rice skill, Rice heart.
The 49ers, 20 years later, should draft the reincarnate.
