What in the Herm Just Happened?
I have digested Herm Edwards comments yesterday for the last 24 hours and I still cannot for the life of me figure out why he lost his mind on national TV. Herm’s statements, were off-base, hypocritical and just down right wrong. Now I don’t love everything that Shady has said about Chip Kelly since his Eagles divorce but yesterday’s comments from Shady were certainly not that inflammatory. Herm probably only saw the 6 second vine of Shady saying “Chip can’t shake shit” and like a typical ESPN employee he ran with that headline because it was “click-bait” rather than choosing to understand the full context of what Shady was saying like a true professional would.
Now I do respect Herm and up until yesterday never really had a problem with him so I am willing to write it off as a bad day for him but here is why he is completely wrong and hypocritical. In my opinion he should apologize although we know that’s not going to happen. Let’s examine some of his quotes. (I translated all the below quotes from Herm and Shady myself so apologies if I am off by a few words but you will get the gist of their sentiments.)
The Hypocritical:
Herm says “You’re a professional man. Don’t lose sight of that”. Well Herm you are a professional too. Right now you are a professional member of the media and to have an outburst, on air, the way you did is completely unprofessional. Also saying “I’m done, I’m done. No. No. I’m done. I am done with all this.” In regards to the conversation and “If I didn’t work here I would walk off this thing right now” is also extremely unprofessional and immature. Confront your problems Herm, don’t walk away from them.
Herm complained “It’s a shame because that’s all we are talking about. We are talking about two teams right now that are trying… One’s trying to win the division the other ones trying to get into the playoffs and we are talking about two disgruntled running backs that are stars.” Well good job Herm because now no one is talking about the game and everyone is just talking about how you lost your cool yesterday. You did nothing to move the focus back to football with your ridiculous outburst yesterday.
Herm then comments “I left the university because I didn’t like the coach. Flat left. Didn’t tell ‘em I was going. Beeped the horn when I was driving by the facility and went somewhere else”. I know you were young and in college Herm but does that sound professional? Not being man enough to tell someone you are quitting on them and leaving for another school?
The Flat Out Wrong:
Herm says “It hurts me because they put their own egos in front of the team”. This could not be more off base in regards to yesterday’s comments from Shady. Shady’s second sentence of the interview was “Main thing just getting a win”. Then he started talking about playoff hopes. Shady would later go on to say he was a “team player first” and at the “end of day just need to win as a team”. Followed by “I don’t want to make it a LeSean McCoy type thing because we need to win this game”. He would also add he’s “gotta be a professional” and “I don’t want to make it a me show. With that type of attitude if I have a huge game and we lose how do you walk off the field? Main thing is just going in there and winning”. What about this sounds like a player who is putting themselves above the team Herm? Not a single one of those statements are about Shady but rather the team winning. They are all statements from Shady trying to refocus the conversation to the game just as you claim you desire Herm.
Yes the statement getting all the attention “Chip can’t shake shit” is about Shady and not the team but he was coerced into saying that after countless questions and is also taken out of context in regards to the entire interview. Shady did take a dig at Chip Kelly at the end with “Feels good again. Feels like the NFL again.” That was just about the worst thing he said which barely deserves any press coverage let alone a 3 minute tirade on national TV.
The fact of the matter is that Herm put his own ego above that of his team (his colleagues at ESPN) by yelling and interrupting everyone for two to three minutes meanwhile Shady was talking about his team needing to win for the majority of his interview. Sound familiar Herm? “You. Play. To. Win. The. Game.” That is what Shady was focused on. You should be proud of him, not scolding him.
It’s this same media company that Herm works for that gets on Marshawn Lynch’s case for saying “I’m just here so I won’t get fined” but then when a player answers a question for real like LeSean McCoy did yesterday then Herm (and the rest of the TMZ, I mean ESPN) goes nuts. Maybe next time Herm gets riled up on national television about something instead of going crazy and making hypocritical statements he will do himself a favor and just simply say “I’m just here so I won’t get fined” rather than threatening to walk off the set of a show live on TV like an 8 year old. It’s time to grow up and act like a professional Herm. In the future you should heed your own advice.
