Ewards leads struggling 1-4 Jets out of cemetery

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- On some NFL teams, coaches bark and players strut. Egos clash like cymbals.

A sack is cause for a dance. A touchdown is time for an autograph show.

New York Jets coach Herman Edwards is not of that world.

Corny as it sounds, he believes in "the purity of football," a game of hard hits and honor without the kind of histrionics and stupid personal fouls that can bury a team.

"You don't want to mar the game with all that. That's not sportsmanship," he says. "You knock a guy down, you don't have to jaw at the guy ... or take a cheap shot."

NFL Coach of the Year doesn't usually go to a man whose team is 9-7. In Edwards' case, he deserves a serious look, even if he's a long shot behind Andy Reid, 12-4 with Philadelphia.

Edwards did a whole lot of coaching this year -- teaching and preaching and holding the hands, so to speak, of the Jets as they tiptoed through the cemetery where graves are dug for 1-4 teams.

He kept them from being spooked, kept them whistling in the dark and on the path to the AFC divisional playoff game Sunday against the Oakland Raiders.

"It's like when you're young, you're walking home from school," Edwards said when asked Wednesday how this year had been a growing experience for him and his players. "Where my school was, it was a little ways from the house. The shortcut was through the graveyard. The thing we always learned, you whistle when you walk. When somebody whistles back, you start running."

Edwards paused for the laughter, permitting himself a slight smile.

"We were 1-4. We were 2-5," he went on, his eyes widening, his voice intensifying. "I was whistling. I was whistling, hoping somebody was going to whistle back. That means we're still alive. That's kind of what we went through."

That the Jets came through, winning eight of their last 10, including last week's 41-0 tour de force against Indianapolis in the wild-card playoffs, is no small tribute to Edwards' balance between taking risks and keeping his composure.

He is a player's coach, motivating and reassuring the Jets in a way that perhaps only a man who has been in the trenches can.

Edwards wore pads for 10 seasons, nine with Philadelphia, and he looks as if he could slip them back on and play cornerback right now. At 48, he's lean and hard and springy, exuding the kind of energy that comes from two-hour workouts at dawn each day.

The son who learned about diligence and dedication from his father, a master sergeant in the Army, keeps his hair and mustache military short. Thick eyebrows and deep furrows on his forehead give his bony face a look of warmth and worry, character and intensity.

Norman Rockwell might have painted him except that in Rockwell's days there was no such thing as a black coach in the NFL.

Edwards is a survivor, nothing if not resilient, and he has molded the Jets in his image. He bounced among three colleges (Cal-Berkeley, Monterey Peninsula Junior College, and San Diego State), came into the NFL as a free agent, landed a starting job as a rookie with the Eagles and kept it. He learned the value of being sensitive yet tough, treating players respectfully without coddling them.

"He can empathize with you about a lot of things," Jets defensive end Steve White said. "He understands a lot more than a guy who hasn't been there and done that. He has credibility. His whole demeanor about football, practice and the game have been shaped by his own experiences."

When quarterback Chad Pennington beat himself up over a costly mistake in a loss last month against Oakland, Edwards calmed him down, told him to forget it. When Edwards wanted to motivate Pennington after making him a starter in the fifth game, he stared him in the eyes and asked him pointedly if he wanted to be good or great?

"That's important for the coach to tell you what you expect," Edwards said. "Now you don't say that to every player. I'm smart enough to know that. Certain guys you say it to because you want to make sure that they understand what you think."

Edwards' straightforward approach, his enthusiasm and his understanding of players convinced several coveted free agents -- Aaron Beasley, Sam Cowart, Sam Garnes, Larry Webster, Josh Evans, Donnie Abraham and Kevin Swayne -- to join the Jets.

The players stuck by him when they were sinking early this season, admiring his stability and counting on him to figure out a way to come back. Edwards didn't disappoint.

Kicker John Hall felt like retiring two years ago after getting benched by then-coach Al Groh in the last game. Edwards came in and gave Hall the confidence he needed to have two of his best seasons.

"He's been a breath of fresh air around here," Hall said. "It's pretty simple with Herm. You are allowed to just go out and play. He doesn't play any mind games."

Steve Wilstein is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press.