A LOOK AT TWO OF THE NEXT RAM, RAIDER OPPONENTS : MANY HAPPY RETURNS : Only a Rookie, Edmonds of Seahawks Leads League in Runbacks

Bobby Joe Edmonds is a professional kick returner. Week after week, he runs back punts and kickoffs for the Seattle Seahawks.

Year after year, for that matter. Although he can do, and has done, other things, Edmonds has majored in returning kicks since he was in high school in St. Louis.

A former conference punt runback champion at Arkansas, he is possibly the most experienced specialist in the National Football League--at least for his age, 22.

And, not surprisingly, he is leading the National Football League this year in punt returns, the more difficult of his two specialties, with a 14.1-yard average.

His associates say that Edmonds, though only a rookie, excels because of the class and style he brings to his lonely profession.

They’ll never forget the morning of his first game last September, when, as usual, the Seahawks filed out of their Seattle hotel bound for opening day at the Kingdome.

Some of the players headed for the team bus. Some got into their own cars.

Edmonds stepped into a limousine.

As his teammates gaped, a uniformed chauffeur held the door open for the young rookie, then disappeared into the front seat and drove him away in quiet dignity.

“Now, that’s class,” a Seattle assistant, Rusty Tillman, said this week, remembering the startled look on the face of Coach Chuck Knox. “Some players drive flashy cars. A guy with real class takes a limo.”

Truth to tell, Edmonds has a flashy car, too, a Nissan 300 ZX. Single, he drives it to practice during the week. But on game days, he is seen only in limousines.

“Bobby Joe has a vision of himself that he always strives to live up to,” Tillman said. “He burns to be the best.”

Not long ago, Edmonds was burning at Arkansas, where after a coaching change he ended his college career as a 5-foot 11-inch, 183-pound wishbone halfback. He isn’t a wishbone halfback. But he gave it all he had last year in what, for him, was a mediocre season until his team’s final game.

Then with all the chips on the table, Edmonds led Arkansas to an 18-17 win over Arizona State in the Holiday Bowl. He was voted most valuable player.

A year earlier, Edmonds had been Arkansas’ star of the Liberty Bowl, catching 10 passes in a 21-15 loss to Auburn.

“Big games are the most fun,” Edmonds said when asked about his lively bowl career. “I’m a big-game player.”

Chick Harris, Seattle backfield coach, has heard that before.

Before this year’s meeting with the Pittsburgh Steelers, hardly an NFL power anymore, Edmonds passed Harris in a hallway and said, “Big game this week, coach.”

“Yay,” said Harris. “Go get ‘em.”

A few days later, contemplating the Kansas City Chiefs, who have been struggling for years, Edmonds repeated, “Big game this week, coach.”

“Yay,” said Harris, a little warier this time.

But, studying him closely, Harris concluded that Edmonds meant it.

And, much later, Harris reported: “We’ve played 13 games so far and 13 times he’s told me, ‘Big game this week.’ The thing is, he’s sincere. I can tell that he really is. He’s one of those players who are always ready.”

When the subject came up the other day, Edmonds said: “Well, every game isn’t a big game, of course. Some are bigger games. Texas is always a bigger game (for Arkansas). In the NFL, the Raiders are always a bigger game.”

The Seahawks will play the Raiders here Monday night. Edmonds, who hurt an ankle and pulled a hamstring in Dallas 10 days ago, was moving without a limp this week and expects to play.

Edmonds was discovered for the Seahawks by Tillman, their special teams coach, who was impressed with him in the Holiday Bowl last winter and made a special trip to Arkansas last spring to try him out.

As Tillman tells the story, Edmonds showed up for the tryout wearing Levi’s and tennis shoes.

“Do you think you can prove anything to a football coach in tennis shoes?” Tillman demanded.

Edmonds said: “I hope so, coach, but we’ll have to hurry. I’ve got to be at batting practice.”

Later, after giving the player a top grade, Tillman told Knox: “That’s a fellow who has his priorities straight. He wants to be a pro athlete first of all. He knows he can do it in the NFL, but he wants to see if he can do it in baseball, too, and he’s honest enough to tell me about it.”

Twice drafted for baseball by the St. Louis Cardinals, Edmonds chose the Seahawks, who drafted him in their 1986 top three.

Actually, until he stopped growing at 5-11, Edmonds was shooting for pro basketball. His father, the first Bobby Joe Edmonds, played several seasons in the NBA.

The second Bobby Joe was born in Nashville when his parents were students at Tennessee State. They had no other children. He has seldom seen his father. His mother died when he was 12--the tragedy rocked the youngster, his friends say. And thereafter, his grandmother in St. Louis was his family.

“I called her Bird because her real name was Canary. She was Canary Hendrix,” said Edmonds, whose cousin was former rock star Jimi Hendrix. “She was wonderful, a beautiful bird, the inspiration of my life.”

Briefly last winter, she left Bobby Joe to visit a daughter in the East. One night, his aunt called from Connecticut with the worst news a man can hear on the telephone. His treasured family, his grandmother, had been killed in a car accident.

Once again, he was devastated. His Seahawk friends say he considered dropping out of life.

“Ever since I was a kid, I had wanted to be a (financial success) so I could do things for her,” Edmonds said. “I wanted to make her life complete.”

Her loss brought him to a crossroads. He could give up or continue on with his own life.

“After a while, I was determined to get back on my feet,” he said. “Football isn’t as much fun now because I don’t have her to share it with. But I realized that she would have told me, ‘Bobby Joe, think of this as your opportunity.’ ”

Chuck Knox gave Edmonds his opportunity when he set out between seasons, as usual, to improve his special teams.

He is a coach whose long record as a winner is due in part to his attention to the kicking side of football, and Edmonds, though a key figure, is hardly the only Seattle specialist. On a squad of 45 players, there are four full-time specialists.

The Seahawks keep a punter, a kicker, and a kick returner, plus a long snapper who is only on the field three or four times a game to center the ball to the punter. The regular center snaps on field goals.

“The worst mistake in football is a blocked punt,” Knox said. “Hear me out on this. You can’t win turning it over on blocked punts.

“So you’ve got to have a snapper who’ll get the ball back there (15 yards) in 7/10ths of a second. Then your punter has to get it away in 1.2. That’s 1.9 for the whole operation from ground to air.

“Only one guy can throw off a kicking team’s timing--the great punt returner on the other side. That’s why I wanted a Bobby Joe Edmonds.”

What does a kick returner have to do with blocking kicks?

“As Rusty (Tillman) says, Edmonds is a very fast jitterbug who might go in any direction,” Knox said. “Nothing makes a kicking team more nervous than that. They get a little lax with their protection when there’s an Edmonds back there. They get a little too anxious to get down the field. We’ve blocked four punts this season, and Edmonds is the big reason.”

Four blocked punts. Four punt returns of 30 or more yards for Edmonds. One of 75 for a touchdown. The NFL’s best average. A chance to break one every Sunday. And, afterward, wherever he wants to go, the limousine. It isn’t a bad life.