Bio

Former NFL head coach and player Herman Edwards joined ESPN in March 2009 as an NFL studio analyst.  He appears primarily on NFL Live and SportsCenter while also contributing to ESPN Radio and the company’s annual Super Bowl coverage.

Among Herm’s other responsibilities, he’s called primetime college football games and in 2011 he participated in the 2011 SportsCenter series “Back to School,” where he returned to his hometown of Monterey to coach his former high school team, the Monterey High School Toreadores.

Before officially joining ESPN, Herm worked a brief stint in Bristol during the 2008 NFL offseason as a guest analyst.  Herm spent eight years as an NFL head coach with the New York Jets (2001-05) and Kansas City Chiefs (2006-08) and led his teams to four playoff appearances, including 2004 when his Jets squad finished with a 10-6 regular season record and advanced to the AFC Divisional Playoffs.  Herm, who also guided the Chiefs to a wild card berth in 2006, is one of only four NFL coaches to lead two different teams to the playoffs in his first season as head coach with those teams.

The first graduate of the NFL’s Minority Coaching Fellowship (1987), Herm began his coaching career as a defensive backs coach at San Jose State (1987-89).  He joined the NFL ranks as a scout with the Chiefs in 1990 and was with the club for four seasons (1992-95) as a defensive backs coach and in his final year as a member of the pro personnel department, before joining Tony Dungy’s staff in Tampa Bay.  He served as the Bucs’ assistant head coach and defensive backs coach from 1996-2000. 

Herm played defensive back for 10 NFL seasons (1977-86), mostly for the Philadelphia Eagles where he recorded 38 career interceptions.  Herm was a member of the Eagles’ Super Bowl team in 1980 and is also known for recovering the fumble by Giants quarterback Joe Pisarcik – and returning it for a game-winning 26-yard touchdown – on one of the most unusual plays in NFL history, dubbed “The Miracle at the Meadowlands” during the closing seconds of the Eagles-Giants game on November 19, 1978. 

A native of Seaside, Herm graduated from Monterey High School, attended the University of California, Berkeley for two years, with a stint at Monterey Peninsula College where he intercepted 10 passes, including four in a single game, before graduating from San Diego State University with a degree in criminal justice. 

Herm remains active in numerous charitable and philanthropic endeavors, including the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and the Herman L. Edwards Family Youth Foundation, which he created in 1985 with the goal of making a direct impact on the lives of children on the Monterey Peninsula.

Herm has been recognized by multiple organizations for his work in the community.  He received the 2012 Walter Camp Foundation Man of the Year Award for his longtime contributions to the game of football; he was honored with Team ESPN’s Commentator of the Year Award in 2013; and in 2015 he received the prestigious Shell Legacy Award from the Shell Oil Company.  Known for his dynamic motivational speaking, Herm regularly addresses football players of all ages, as well as corporate groups.  He also co-authored the book You Play to Win the Game – Leadership Lessons for Success On and Off the Field with ESPN’s Shelley Smith.

A passionate golfer, Herm appeared in Golf Channel’s original series “The Haney Project” with professional instructor Hank Haney in December 2011.  Herm also plays a number of high-profile celebrity tournaments each year, including the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship in Lake Tahoe.

Herm and his wife, Lia, are the proud parents of three children: Marcus, Gabrielle, and Vivian.