However, the young man had demons. A car wreck killed his mother when he was 13, leaving him in the care of his grandmother, who died in another car wreck in 1985. Edmonds coped by drinking heavily.
He signed with Detroit in 1989, but got cut at the end of camp and caught on with the Raiders. He broke his ankle that October and Los Angeles released him in the offseason. No other team would take a chance on him due to his injury and his reputation as a drunk
Out of the NFL at age 26, Edmonds hit rock bottom and then got it together. He sold real estate, quit drinking and trained for a comeback.
Five years later, Edmonds drew on an old Seahawks connection to get back into the league. Rusty Tillman knew Edmonds from his tenure as the Seattle special teams coach from 1979-91. After working as the Seahawk defensive coordinator from 1992-94, Tillman took the same job in Tampa Bay in 1995. The coach put in a good word for his former player, and that was enough to give Edmonds a shot at a comeback.
After five seasons out of the league, Edmonds became the starting kick returner and performed well. Unfortunately, the Bucs went 6-10, so Head Coach Sam Wyche got fired, along with Tillman, and Edmonds was finished, too.
Happy Birthday also to T.J. Houshmandzadeh. The Pro Bowl free agent cashed in by leaving Cincinnati for Seattle in 2009, signing a five-year, $40 million contract with $15 million guaranteed. He led Seattle in receiving that year, but the team went 5-11, Coach Jim Mora got fired, and Housh did not dig Pete Carroll's style. Evidently, he was such a cancer in the locker room that Seattle cut him in 2010 and paid him the rest of the $7 million in guaranteed money we owed him to play for someone else. After undistinguished stints in Baltimore and Oakland, he retired.
No comments:
Post a Comment