BIGGEST STAGE..AND JUST HOW RARE A SUPER BOWL OPPORTUNITY REALLY IS..### HERM HERM EDWARDS, FORMER NFL PLAYER AND COACH “THIS IS THE BIGGEST EVENT YOU CAN PLAY IN AS A PRO FOOTBALL PLAYER…IS THE SUPER BOWL.” ON THE WALL OF HERM EDWARD’S HOME GYM…IN CARMEL.. HANGS THE JERSEY.. HE WORE FOR THE PHILADELPHIA EAGLES.. DURING SUPER BOWL 15… HELD IN JANUARY OF 19-81 IN NEW ORLEANS….THE VERY FIRST SUPER BOWL THE EAGLES EVER PLAYED IN…AND THEY WOULD GO UP AGAINST THE OAKLAND RAIDERS… NAT POP “THE AUTUMN WIND IS A RAIDER.. EDWARDS SAYS THE TWO TEAMS HAD VERY DIFFERENT WAYS OF PREPARING FOR THE BIG GAME…SOMETHING HE NOTICED SEVERAL DAYS BEFORE KICKOFF.. HERM EDWARDS, FORMER NFL PLAYER AND COACH “IT IS “IT IS THURSDAY NIGHT..AND I AM IN THE HOTEL IN AROUND 10 OR 11 O’CLOCK AND I AM LOOKING AT THE NEWS ..AND THE RAIDERS ARE LIKE… THEY ARE OUT IN BOURBON STREET ..AND I AM THINKING ‘HUH THAT’S INTERESTING’…WE ARE ALL IN OUR ROOMS WE ARE STUDYING .. ..AND ..AND THEN ON FRIDAY NIGHT I AM LOOKING AT THE 11 O’CLOCK NEWS AGAIN…AND THE RAIDERS ARE ON BOURBON STREET AGAIN AND I LOOKED AT MY ROOMMATE AND SAID ‘WE COULD BE IN TROUBLE’… THEY ARE KIND OF LOOSE..AND WE WERE ALL UP TIGHT..” THE RAIDERS…A WILD CARD TEAM.. DID NOT LET ANY HANG-OVER SLOW THEM DOWN…AND PLAYED WITH A CERTAIN CONFIDENCE THAT DAY..DAIQUIRI INDUCED OR NOT..IT WAS ENOUGH TO BEAT THE EAGLES … WHO WERE FAVORED TO WIN. EDWARDS SAYS A TEAM’S NERVES MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE…IN A GAME WITH MEDIA DISTRACTIONS …INTENSE PRESSURE …AND NO MARGIN FOR ERROR.. HERM EDWARDS, FORMER NFL PLAYER AND COACH “WHEN YOU “WHEN YOU WATCH A GAME AND REFLECT ON A GAME …YOU LOOK BACK ON THE ERRORS THAT OCCURRED ..AND WHEN YOU GET INTO THE SUPER BOWL FOR THE FIRST TIME FOR US…IT WAS WHOA! HOW DO YOU GET OUT OF THIS… BUTTED BECAUSE MORE GAMES ARE LOST THAN WON.” YOU CAN BREAK UP THE SOTS WITH NAT POP OF THE HIGHLIGHTS..GOOD MENTION OF ANNOUNCER SAYING “HERM EDWARDS ..TOWARDS EDWARDS WOULD NEVER GET ANOTHER CHANCE AS A PLAYER…..HE CAME CLOSE AS A COACH…BUT THE LOMBARDI TROPHY ELUDED HIM… DUDLEY: AFTER DUDLEY: AFTER YOU LOST THE SUPER BOWL… HOW DID YOU OVERCOME THAT? EDWARDS: IT IS HARD… …IT TOOK A …IT TOOK A WEEK FOR ME…I WAS LIKE DANG.. WE LOST THE SUPER BOWL..” BUTTED “I WAS IN THE LEAGUE COACHING AND PLAYING FOR OVER 30 YEARS… I GOT TO ONE, ONE!” BUTTED 16;21 “I ALWAYS TELL PEOPLE ALL THE TIME…’MAN WIN IT.. BECAUSE YOU DON’T KNOW IF YOU ARE GOING BACK.” FOR YEARS AFTER THE LOSS. …EDWARDS WOULD áNOTá EVEN WATCH THE SUPER BOWL… THOUGH THAT CHANGED WHEN HE STARTED WORKING FOR E-S-P-N…MAKING WEEKLY TRIPS FROM THE CENTRAL COAST TO BRISTOL CONNECTICUT.. HERM EDWARDS, FORMER NFL PLAYER AND COACH “I WOULD NOT “I WOULD NOT WATCH THE SUPER BOWL…I WOULDN’T DO IT…AND THEN I GO TO TELEVISION..AND THEN THEY GO COACH..’WE HEARD YOU DON’T WATCH SUPER BOWLS..AND I SAID “YEAH…I REALLY DON’T… .AND THEY SAID WELL COACH YOU GOT TO WATCH IT BECAUSE YOU GOT TO TALK ABOUT IT ON TELEVISION… SO SO WHEN I STARTED WORKING FOR ESPN I SAID WELL I GUESS I GOT TO START WATCHING THE BOWL NOW.” STAND UP : EVEN THOUGH HE NEVER WON A SUPER BOWL.. TODAY — EDWARDS FINDS PERSPECTIVE AND GRATITUDE ….SAYING HE IS BLESSED TO HAVE BEEN ABLE TO LIVE OUT HIS DREAM OF BEING IN THE NFL BUT ALSO…TO HAVE GROWN UP IN SEASIDE…AND TO HAVE BEEN A GRADUATE OF MONTEREY HIGH.. HERM EDWARDS, FORMER NFL PLAYER AND COACH “I GREW UP “I GREW UP HERE…AND I STILL TELL PEOPLE ALL THE TIME… I GREW UP ON THE MONTEREY PENINSULA ..I AM FROM SEASIDE…AND IF YOU HAVE HOPES AND DREAMS…AND YOU WORK HARD AT IT…SOMEONE IS GOING TO GIVE YOU A CHANCE…AND WHEN THE CHANCE COMES YOU BETTER BE READY FOR IT…” WITH ANOTHER SUPER BOWL AHEAD… EDWARDS SAYS CHAMPIONSHIPS MATTER – BUT REMEMBERING WHERE YOU STARTED MATTERS MORE…. SO IT’ S FITTING THAT HIS SUPER BOWL JERSEY HANGS NEXT TO THE ONE HE WORE AT MONTEREY HIGH. YOU CAN WATCH THE SUPER BOWL ON KSBW NBC ON FEBRUARY 8TH
Central Coast native Herm Edwards reflects on his lone Super Bowl appearance
Updated: 11:24 AM PST Feb 2, 2026
As the Super Bowl approaches, Herm Edwards, a former NFL player and coach who grew up in Seaside and graduated from Monterey High, reflects on the pressure of playing on the NFL’s biggest stage and the rarity of a Super Bowl opportunity.”This is the biggest event you can play in as a pro football player, is the Super Bowl,” Edwards said.In his Carmel home gym, Edwards displays the jersey he wore for the Philadelphia Eagles during Super Bowl XV in January 1981 in New Orleans, the first Super Bowl the Eagles had ever played in, against the Oakland Raiders. Edwards said with a smile that he noticed the different preparation styles of the two teams even several days before the game.”It is Thursday night, and I am in the hotel around 10 or 11 o’clock, and I am looking at the news, and the Raiders are like, they are out in Bourbon Street, and I am thinking, ‘huh, that’s interesting,’ we are all in our rooms, we are studying,” Edwards said. “And then on Friday night I am looking at the 11 o’clock news again, and the Raiders are on Bourbon Street again, and I looked at my roommate and said ‘we could be in trouble,’ they are kind of loose, and we were all uptight.”Despite being a wild-card team, the Raiders played with confidence and defeated the Eagles, who were favored to win. Edwards emphasized that a team’s nerves can make all the difference in a game filled with media distractions, intense pressure, and no margin for error.”When you watch a game and reflect on a game, you look back on the errors that occurred, and when you get into the Super Bowl for the first time for us, it was whoa! How do you get out of this?” Edwards said. “Because more games are lost than won.”Edwards never got another chance as a player and came close as a coach, but the Lombardi Trophy eluded him. Reflecting on the loss, he said, “It is hard, it took a week for me, I was like dang, we lost the Super Bowl.” He added, “I was in the league coaching and playing for over 30 years, I got to one, one!” Edwards advises, “I always tell people all the time, ‘Man win it, because you don’t know if you are going back.'”For years after the loss, Edwards would not watch the Super Bowl until he started working for ESPN, which required him to discuss the game on television.”I would not watch the Super Bowl, I wouldn’t do it, and then I go to television, and then they go coach, ‘we heard you don’t watch Super Bowls,’ and I said ‘yeah, I really don’t,’ and they said well coach you got to watch it because you got to talk about it on television,” Edwards said. “So when I started working for ESPN, I said, well, I guess I got to start watching the bowl now.”Despite never winning a Super Bowl, Edwards finds perspective and gratitude, saying he is blessed to have lived out his dream of being in the NFL and to have grown up in Seaside and graduated from Monterey High.”I grew up here, and I still tell people all the time, I grew up on the Monterey Peninsula, I am from Seaside, and if you have hopes and dreams, and you work hard at it, someone is going to give you a chance, and when the chance comes, you better be ready for it,” Edwards said.With another Super Bowl ahead, Edwards emphasizes that while championships matter, remembering where you started matters more. His Super Bowl jersey fittingly hangs next to the one he wore at Monterey High.
CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA, Calif. —
As the Super Bowl approaches, Herm Edwards, a former NFL player and coach who grew up in Seaside and graduated from Monterey High, reflects on the pressure of playing on the NFL’s biggest stage and the rarity of a Super Bowl opportunity.
“This is the biggest event you can play in as a pro football player, is the Super Bowl,” Edwards said.
In his Carmel home gym, Edwards displays the jersey he wore for the Philadelphia Eagles during Super Bowl XV in January 1981 in New Orleans, the first Super Bowl the Eagles had ever played in, against the Oakland Raiders.
Edwards said with a smile that he noticed the different preparation styles of the two teams even several days before the game.
“It is Thursday night, and I am in the hotel around 10 or 11 o’clock, and I am looking at the news, and the Raiders are like, they are out in Bourbon Street, and I am thinking, ‘huh, that’s interesting,’ we are all in our rooms, we are studying,” Edwards said. “And then on Friday night I am looking at the 11 o’clock news again, and the Raiders are on Bourbon Street again, and I looked at my roommate and said ‘we could be in trouble,’ they are kind of loose, and we were all uptight.”
Despite being a wild-card team, the Raiders played with confidence and defeated the Eagles, who were favored to win. Edwards emphasized that a team’s nerves can make all the difference in a game filled with media distractions, intense pressure, and no margin for error.
“When you watch a game and reflect on a game, you look back on the errors that occurred, and when you get into the Super Bowl for the first time for us, it was whoa! How do you get out of this?” Edwards said. “Because more games are lost than won.”
Edwards never got another chance as a player and came close as a coach, but the Lombardi Trophy eluded him.
Reflecting on the loss, he said, “It is hard, it took a week for me, I was like dang, we lost the Super Bowl.”
He added, “I was in the league coaching and playing for over 30 years, I got to one, one!” Edwards advises, “I always tell people all the time, ‘Man win it, because you don’t know if you are going back.'”
For years after the loss, Edwards would not watch the Super Bowl until he started working for ESPN, which required him to discuss the game on television.
“I would not watch the Super Bowl, I wouldn’t do it, and then I go to television, and then they go coach, ‘we heard you don’t watch Super Bowls,’ and I said ‘yeah, I really don’t,’ and they said well coach you got to watch it because you got to talk about it on television,” Edwards said. “So when I started working for ESPN, I said, well, I guess I got to start watching the bowl now.”
Despite never winning a Super Bowl, Edwards finds perspective and gratitude, saying he is blessed to have lived out his dream of being in the NFL and to have grown up in Seaside and graduated from Monterey High.
“I grew up here, and I still tell people all the time, I grew up on the Monterey Peninsula, I am from Seaside, and if you have hopes and dreams, and you work hard at it, someone is going to give you a chance, and when the chance comes, you better be ready for it,” Edwards said.
With another Super Bowl ahead, Edwards emphasizes that while championships matter, remembering where you started matters more. His Super Bowl jersey fittingly hangs next to the one he wore at Monterey High.