Never one to shy away from giving his truthful opinion, Jason Whitlock of the Kansas City Star ripped former Chiefs head coach Herm Edwards for his less-than stellar performance on ESPN’s broadcast of the NFL draft last weekend.
Herm spent two days on air making damn sure he didn’t offer one opinion that could potentially put him at odds with an NFL owner, general manager or remotely talented player. Edwards isn’t the first former coach to hit the television airwaves determined to pick up an easy paycheck and protect his future coaching prospects.
If he’s not careful, his ESPN job is going to sabotage his coaching career. In two days of breaking down the draft, Edwards came across as sound and fury signifying absolutely nothing. His commentary was a mixture of Mike Ditka, Sarah Palin and Michael Irvin.
I fully expect to soon see Edwards standing in front of the pointless touch-screen prop that had promising Michael Smith looking and sounding more like Vanna White than the next Chris Mortensen during the draft weekend.
For a man who was supposed to be a broadcasting natural, Edwards mumbled, stumbled and clichéd his way through two days of draft coverage. Kansas City’s 2-14 record made sense.
Unfortunately I didn’t see Edwards’ performance on ESPN because my TV never left the NFL Network’s coverage of the draft, but it would make sense that Herm wouldn’t want to ruffle any feathers if he hopes to get another head coaching gig.
Jon Gruden was an analyst for the NFL Network all weekend and while I didn’t think he did a bad job, he didn’t give any earth-shattering commentary either. I thought he played his role – talked about team needs, what a head coach looks for in prospects and gave his opinion on the state of certain franchises. I wouldn’t expect him to rip another head coach, owner or team given the fact that he’ll probably be in the league again next year. I would have to assume that NFL coaches share a brotherhood to some extent, which is why Herm probably didn’t feel the need to lambaste anyone either.
It still would have been nice to see what Whitlock is talking about with Edwards though. Anyone agree with Whitlock’s assessment of Herm’s performance?
