Courtesy USA Today

(March 4, 2009) The question for anybody going straight from competing in a sport to analyzing it on TV: Can you be candid about all those old friends and foes?
And if you've coached: Will you see TV as just a pit stop until you can get back on the sidelines?

Herm Edwards, fired weeks ago as the Kansas City Chiefs' coach, makes his ESPN debut Wednesday on NFL Live. He says he'll be "critical" but not "condescending." He won't rule out returning to coaching but sounds resigned to having no chance of future Gatorade baths: "I'm really going to put my heart and soul into this. If this can take me for the rest of my life in football, I'm OK with that."

After playing 10 NFL seasons, Edwards went 54-74 as a head coach of the New York Jets for five seasons and then three with Kansas City — including coaching the Chiefs to a 2-14 record last season. He's direct on whether his Chiefs quarterback, Tyler Thigpen, will have a chance to keep that position now that the Chiefs got Matt Cassel from the New England Patriots: "They didn't get Cassel to be the backup."

Edwards, who'll show what he can do by regularly appearing on NFLLive, SportsCenter and ESPNews before ESPN's regular-season assignments are finalized, says he got feelers from other networks. But ESPN allowed him to feel "at home" and carry on his larger purpose: "We're all in this, at the end of the day, to promote the game of football."

ESPN producer Seth Markman says that, after Edwards did some ESPN cameos last season, "We knew right away" that Edwards would be a good recruit. And Edwards suggests wearing TV makeup at work doesn't mean he expects to get by with a wink and a smile: "Even in this job, you still have to work at it. Those are your words."