Turning Pages of '100 Things Colts Fans:' 'Edge'

Known to everyone as “Edge,” no Indianapolis Colts player has ever been as entertaining as all-time leading rusher Edgerrin James.

His on-field achievements are well-known, especially now that Edge has been voted into the 2020 class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He finished his 11-year NFL career with 12,246 yards with 9,226 coming in a Colts uniform from 1999 to 2005. Selected with the fourth overall pick in 1999, he led the NFL in rushing yards his first two seasons.

But this cool dude wasn’t about numbers.

Retired Colts tight end Ken Dilger recalled for the 2013 book 100 Things Colts Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die how Edge paid lost 2001 World Series bets to teammates Sam Sword and Rodregis Brooks.

He rolled in buckets of pennies — 50,000 for Sword and 10,000 for Brooks. Congrats and good day, gentlemen.

“He was always a character at heart,” Dilger said. “He was fun to play with, one of my all-time favorites. They called him ‘Stress Free’ for a reason. He’d come out for a practice and didn’t really seem to care about anything. He just ran the ball hard. Always a smile on his face.”

Eight years after his last Colts game, Edged laughed about the pennies.

“With me it’s like, it’s not what you do, it’s how you do it. The penny thing, it was one of those things where, OK, I lost the bet and I honored the bet, but then I wanted to get a joy out of the way I lost. If I’m going to go out, I’m going to go out in style. I went out in style with that one. They had to carry those big buckets and go through all of that, do all of that work for that money. I caught ’em off guard.”

The cool dude with dreadlocks definitely had his own style. Edge was unselfish and didn’t complain about a shortage of carries in a pass-happy offense. He took pride in destroying blitzing linebackers with a crushing block. The guy was smart, too, a necessity in the Colts’ complicated offense.

“Edge’s greatest gift is the one he gives so freely,” said Phil Richards, who covered the Colts for The Indianapolis Star. “You always walk away from him feeling good.”

“Edge is a classic,” said former Colts all-time radio voice Bob Lamey. “He meant more to this franchise than people think. In the early days, when Marshall (Faulk) was leaving, we needed somebody to step in and fill the void. Edgerrin not only stepped in and filled the void, he did it with class and he did it every day. The only days I never saw Edgerrin smile was when he was hurt and he knew he couldn’t play because he loved it.”

“I loved Edgerrin,” said Jim Mora, his Colts head coach from 1999 to 2001. “His teammates loved him. Great guy, one of the best people I’ve ever been around. Tough, durable, really good receiver out of the backfield. And I’ll tell you one thing about Edgerrin, he was really smart. He was a very unselfish football player. He could do it all.”

The Colts added Edge to its Ring of Honor in a 2012 halftime ceremony. He received a standing ovation when he walked off the field.

“I always loved the Colts fans. I knew they were the best fans in the world,” Edge said, thinking back. “I grew up in the NFL and as a person from the first day I stepped out as an Indianapolis Colt. When I got to Indianapolis, the way everybody embraced me, I understand a lot of people didn’t know me but little bit by little bit, being in the community and being around and getting a grasp of what is going on around that city, you actually become a part of that city. When I got back there for the Ring of Honor, it was just a reminder.”

Owner Jim Irsay has so much respect for Edge, he gave the running back a Super Bowl XLI ring even though the running back had departed the previous 2007 offseason to play for the Arizona Cardinals.

“It’s one of those things where he didn’t have to do it but it showed your work was appreciated,” he said. “We understand the business side of things. I understand the fact that I wasn’t there, but I always stayed in touch with everybody. When Mr. Irsay gave me the ring, that just made it mean a little bit more. That’s a ring that I will never let anybody else get. I will always hold it and seriously. It’s bigger than other peoples’ rings. This right here is something that has so much sentimental value.”

After finally making it into the Hall of Fame earlier this year, Edge announced that Irsay would be his presenter.

When reporting on anything about Edge, expect the unusual.

Former longtime writer Conrad Brunner recalled being sent to the Sunshine State in December of 1999 when he was covering the Colts for The Indianapolis Star. Just getting to Edge’s hometown of Immokalee, Fla., was an adventure. Brunner and a photographer had to maneuver through “Alligator Alley.”

“It’s not just hype,” Brunner said. “The fences were 10 feet high on the Interstate. Then we got on a two-lane road in the morning and it’s alligators everywhere. Then for the first time in my life, I saw a sign for a ‘Panther Crossing.’ You’re traveling into a whole different world.

“Then you pull into Immokalee and it a humble, little town. It’s hard to imagine anyone coming from there. When you go to the town and see where he came from, it gives you an appreciation of who he is. It would have been real easy to never amount to anything.”

Edge warned Brunner beforehand about running into a local known as “Ice Pick” Willie. Sure enough, after stopping on the side of the road, Willie stepped out from seemingly nowhere and was carrying an ice pick. He wanted the photographer’s equipment and might have ended up with it had a deputy sheriff not stopped by. Willie suddenly became friendly. When told of the run-in after the Colts won at Miami 37-34 a few days later, Edge smiled and laughed.

He’s seemingly always smiling and laughing. Nobody needs to ever worry about Edge. He laughs when reminded of some of his memorable quotes, including the time he explained skipping voluntary offseason minicamp with, “I only went to college for 2 1/2 years, but I think I know the meaning of the word voluntary.”

Classic Edge.

“That’s when I was riding that boat. I was hanging on that bus. Those were in the ‘Stress Free’ times,” he said, referring to the name of his boat.

All you need to know about Edge, everyone already knows.

“Man, every day. Fun. Fun. Fun,” he said. “I wish I was in the reality thing. I would show people how to live. Every day. My day is not complete unless I find something fun to do, no matter what it is.”