Edgerrin James - From Gold Teeth to Gold Jacket: My Life in Football and Business

Copyright 2021 Edgerrin James, with John Harris

Foreword copyright 2021 Peyton Manning

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Jacket design by Brian Peterson

Front jacket photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Colts

Back jacket and spine photos courtesy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame

Print ISBN: 978-1-68358-432-2

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-68358-433-9

Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

BY PEYTON MANNING

I REALLY enjoyed getting to know Edgerrin and being his teammate. He was an unbelievable talent. I liked him from the get-go. To me, one of the best things players can say about you when you stop playing is: He was a great teammate. I remember telling my father, Archie Manning, that Edgerrin James was the best teammate I ever had. I really meant that and still do to this day. He was dependable. He always played. He always practiced. He didnt miss practice because his back was hurting. He was a quiet guy who didnt say a lot, but instead spoke with his actions. He didnt boast about what he was going to do. He just did the work. And he was unselfish. Edgerrin took a lot of pride in his pass-blocking and he took a lot of pride in his ability to catch the ball. He always picked up the blitz. He was a great runner but, to me, he was equally as great of a pass protector and he knew who to block. You didnt have to worry about him being in there on a pivotal play. He was an every-down back who never came out of the game. There are a lot of great players who do this well or that better, but as an overall teammate, he just had it. Hes a guy you liked having in your huddle with you. I liked having him behind me.

I have good memories being Edgerrins teammate. You watched him score a touchdown, and he was like Barry Sanders. Hed hand the ball to the referee, or hed keep it and give it to the equipment guy if it was special. He acted like this is what Im supposed to do. Some guys spike it and celebrate. There was no dancing, no spiking the ball. He didnt bring attention to himself. I always appreciated that.

I still remember the first time I saw him run with the ball after we drafted him out of Miami. We played the Saints in a preseason game. I knew who Edgerrin was, that great game he had against UCLA when he rushed for 299 yards. When I heard Edgerrins name called on draft day, I was excited because he was a special running back who was coming to the Colts. He held out for a few weeks and missed training camp, but I saw him in minicamps so I knew what he could do in practice. But you always want to see it up close and personal on the field in a game. He didnt come in boasting about what he was going to do. He just came in and went to work. We ran a draw play against the Saints and our line didnt block anybody. This defensive tackle had him right in his grasp. He spun out for a nice gain and later ran for a touchdown in the same drive. I remember saying, Wow. This is gonna be fun.

The biggest compliment I can give Edgerrin James is that I took so much pride in faking and carrying out my fake after handing him the ball. Its not a rest play for the quarterback. Faking is about discipline and effort. That all changed with Edgerrin. You would call me the biggest hypocrite if you watched film of me and Edgerrin. A lot of times I wasnt carrying out my fakes because I wanted to watch him run the ball. If I handed off to him, I didnt want to run to the other side and carry out the fake. I wanted to see. I had the best view of anybody in that stadium. Nobody had a better view because I was right behind No. 32. My coaches would say, Peyton, come on. I couldnt help it. It was too good of a view to miss.

I think somehow it had gotten in the narrative that the reason Edgerrin had such great success with the Colts was because we had great receivers and we threw the ball so well and that allowed him to be a great running back because teams wanted to stop the pass. Im saying no, no no, it worked the other way. The reason we threw the ball so well is because we knew we were going to get one-on-one coverage outside on our receivers because the defense was keying on the run. Edgerrin took a lot of pride in knowing that defenses had to put an extra defender down there close to the line of scrimmage to stop him. He allowed us to throw the ball because teams were trying to stop him. Our offense started with him and his ability to run the ball.

Edgerrin helped establish a winning culture in Indianapolis. After he arrived, free agents wanted to come and play in Indy. The Colts had some good teams through the years, but there were a lot of years when they were considered an easy win. Edgerrin James helped change that. For us to win 12 games seven seasons in a row, he was a big part of that. Indiana is a football state now. When Edgerrin and I got there, it was a basketball state, it was a car racing state. It was a combination of people who helped change that perception. Edgerrin will always be remembered as one of the pillars who transformed the Indianapolis Colts.

INTRODUCTION

BY JOHN HARRIS

T HE night before the UCLA game, the most important game of his life, University of Miami running back Edgerrin James, sans a crystal ball, boldly and correctly predicted his future.

It was a heartfelt, business-driven prognosis based on years of not only enduring but overcoming the slings and arrows of living a hard knock life circa 1998.

Among the greatest offensive players in the storied history of Hurricanes football, James bet on himself, and wonbig. A well-balanced running back, James was deceptively fast and possessed the speed to burst through holes and locate daylight (he was timed in a blazing 4.38 seconds in the 40-yard dash at UMs pro day), with the raw power to break tackles and create his own holes. In his three years at The U, he averaged an astronomical six yards per carry.

With the NFL draft only a few months away, James set his sights squarely on securing the bag of cold hard cash that would forever lift his family out of poverty and guarantee generational wealth.

I just needed one time to get the money, James said. I get the money one time, and Im not worried about it anymore. Im not worried about the money because I can live without doing all the things that a lot of people try to do with money. I never cared about money, as far as Ive got to use it. I just wanted money for the safety and to be able to provide for my family.

This book is about Jamess rise to prominence, as a football phenom from the Deep South who didnt permit himself to be shackled by lifes circumstances and evolved into a college legend on his way to becoming an NFL superstar, culminating in the rarified air of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. The books title, From Gold Teeth to Gold Jacket , identifies James as a unique personality whose nontraditional appearance countered societal normsfrom his gold teeth to the long dreadlocks dangling outside his helmet. To be blunt, some segments of society prejudged him without really knowing him. This book traces Jamess roots as a young entrepreneur who played football to satisfy his deep-seated business instincts, creating remarkable riches.