21 years ago, Herm Edwards reminded us all that ‘you play to win the game’

Herm Edwards’ legacy is a complicated one. He found some success on the football field but he’s also had some controversies to boot. And more than anything, football fans will likely remember him for the things he’s said more than for what his teams did.

His Arizona State introductory press conference was one for the ages (“We don’t huddle anymore in our society. That’s the problem with it, to be honest.”). But nothing will ever top his presser at New York Jets head coach on October 30, 2002.

That was the day we all learned that you play to win the game.

In his second season as head coach of the Jets, Edwards was looking down the barrel of a particularly bad season. At 2-5 and coming off a 24-21 loss to the Cleveland Browns, he was asked if there was any risk of his team giving up and quitting. That’s when the magic happened.

“This is what’s great about sports — you play to win the game. Hello? You play to win the game. You don’t play to just play it,” Edwards said. “That’s the great thing about sports. You play to win. And I don’t care if you don’t have any wins. You go play to win.”

While the moment might be remembered with a chuckle or as a humorous anecdote on an otherwise disappointing season like Dennis Green’s “They are who we thought they were,” that’s not the case. Thanks to a surging defense inspired by his rallying cry, coupled with the emergence of a young Chad Pennington at quarterback, the Jets won their next four games, finished 9-7 to make the playoffs, and absolutely crushed the Indianapolis Colts 41-0 in the Wild Card round before bowing out in the Divisional Round.

Edwards’ impassioned delivery of the iconic quote is what everyone remembers. Some also noted that it’s the closest we ever got to seeing the religious coach go NSFW.

“There is no situation so dire it would make Jets coach Herman Edwards curse,” wrote New York Times Jets’ reporter Judy Battista afterward. “But to Edwards, ‘quit’ is a four-letter word, and when he was asked today if there were any risk of the Jets giving up as the season spirals toward disaster, he reacted with more anger than he had previously displayed publicly in his season and a half as head coach.”

Edwards’ tenure with the Jets included four playoff berths but a 39-41 overall record. His brief run with the Kansas City Chiefs fared much worse. And when he surprisingly returned to coaching in 2018 to lead Arizona State, his teams performed well on the field but NCAA investigations and a mass exodus of players led to his downfall.

Through it all, however, Herm Edwards played to win the game. He didn’t just play to play it. Just like he said.

[New York Times, NFL.com]