Eddie Edwards (born April 25, 1954) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formations over the years have substantially changed how the position is p ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

(NFL). Edwards was born in

Sumter, South Carolina Sumter ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Sumter County, South Carolina, United States. Known as the Sumter Metropolitan Statistical Area, the namesake county adjoins Clarendon and Lee to form the core of Sumter-Lee-Clarendon Tri-county (or ...

and raised in

Fort Pierce, Florida Fort Pierce is a city in and the county seat of St. Lucie County, Florida, United States. The city is part of the Treasure Coast region of Atlantic Coast Florida. It is also known as the Sunrise City, sister to San Francisco, California, the Suns ...

. He played high school football at

Fort Pierce Central High School Fort Pierce Central High School is a public high school located in Fort Pierce, Florida, Fort Pierce, Florida, United States. It is part of the St. Lucie Public Schools district. History Fort Pierce Central High School opened its doors in 1970 a ...

. He attended the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...

, where he was a consensus All-American defensive end. In 1976, he was awarded the Jack Harding Memorial Award as the most valuable player for the Hurricanes, as selected by coaches vote. Edwards was drafted in the first round of the

1977 NFL Draft The 1977 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The NFL draft, draft was held May 3–4, 1977 NFL season, 19 ...

, the third overall selection, by the

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The club's home ...

. He played for the Bengals for 12 seasons from 1977 until his retirement in 1988. During that time, he recovered 17 fumbles and set a franchise record with 83.5 sacks. However, only 47.5 of those sacks are "official", as the NFL did not consider sacks an official statistic until 1982. His 47.5 official sacks remained a Bengals franchise record until

Carlos Dunlap Carlos Dunlap (born February 28, 1989) is an American football defensive end for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Florida where he won a National Championship in 2009. He was drafted by ...

passed him in 2015. Edwards was inducted into the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame in 1989.

References

External links

University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame Inductees
1954 births Living people Sportspeople from Sumter, South Carolina American football defensive ends Miami Hurricanes football players Cincinnati Bengals players Players of American football from South Carolina National Football League replacement players Ed Block Courage Award recipients {{defensive-lineman-1950s-stub