Mike Edwards (born April 26, 1991) is an American former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

cornerback A cornerback (CB) is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in gridiron football. Cornerbacks cover Wide receiver, receivers most of the time, but also blitz and defend against such Play from scrimmage, offensive running plays as sweep ...

. He was signed by the

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team p ...

as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

in 2013. He played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

for the Hawaii Warriors of the

University of Hawaii A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

. In 2012, he led all college football players in kickoff return yards.

Early life

Edwards attended

Glenville High School Glenville High School is a public high school in the Glenville area on the East Side of Cleveland, Ohio. The school is part of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. The school originally resided at the former Oliver Wendell Holmes scho ...

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...

, and was a member of the school's

and track teams. He helped the football team reach the regional semi-finals as a senior. Edwards scored his team's sole touchdown in an 8–7 loss to Cleveland St. Ignatius. As a senior, he had 34

tackles Tackle may refer to: * In football: ** Tackle (football move), a play in various forms of football ** Tackle (gridiron football position) A tackle is a playing position in American football. Historically, in the one-platoon system prevalent ...

and five

interception In Ball game, ball-playing Competitive sport, competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for ...

s and was named to the All-State first-team."Mike Edwards"
hawaiiathletics.com. Retrieved February 7, 2013.

College career

Edwards played for the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (or The University of Tennessee; UT; UT Knoxville; or colloquially UTK or Tennessee) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee, United St ...

in 2009. He appeared in eight games and had five tackles. He then redshirted the 2010 season at

Coffeyville Community College Coffeyville Community College (CCC) is a Public college, public community college located in Coffeyville, Kansas. It was founded in 1923. The official school colors are red and white. The mascot is the Red Raven. Their athletic teams are known ...

. In 2011, Edwards went to the University of Hawaii and started 12 games at cornerback. He had 43 tackles that season. He also had 44 kick returns, and his 24.7 yard average was second-best in the WAC. In 2012, Edwards led all college football players with 1,215 kickoff return yards and had a 30.4 yard average."Mike Edwards To Forgo Senior Season"
hawaiiathletics.com. January 2, 2013. Retrieved February 7, 2013. His three kickoff returns for

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Scoring a touchdown grants the team that scored it 6 points. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchd ...

s set a Hawaii single-season record. Edwards also had 43 tackles. He was named the

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Ja ...

's Special Teams Player of the Year. After the season, Edwards entered the

NFL draft The NFL draft, officially known as the Annual Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the most common source of player recruitment in the National Football League. Each team is given a position in the drafting order in reve ...

. He finished his career at Hawaii with 2,301 total kickoff return yards, which was a school record.

Professional career

New York Jets

Edwards signed with the New York Jets as an undrafted free agent following the 2013 NFL draft. He was released on August 31, 2013.

Los Angeles KISS

On October 28, 2014, Edwards was assigned to the

Los Angeles KISS The Los Angeles Kiss (stylized as LA KISS) were a professional arena football team based in Anaheim, California, and members of the Arena Football League (AFL). The Kiss joined the AFL as an expansion team after Los Angeles' previous franchise ( ...

of the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 Arena Football League season, 1987 season, making it the third longest-runnin ...

. On March 20, 2015, Edwards was placed on recallable reassignment.

Personal life

Edwards was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Mike and Tameeka Edwards. He has one brother, two sisters, and one son and one daughter. Edwards was a sociology major. He is 5 feet, 10 inches tall, and weighs 186 pounds. After his freshman season at Tennessee, Edwards and some of his teammates held up some people with a pellet gun. He was charged with three counts of attempted armed robbery. He pleaded down to a lesser charge and was sentenced to two years probation.

Notes and references

External links

Hawaii Warriors bioTennessee Volunteers bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Mike 1991 births Living people Hawaii Rainbow Warriors football players New York Jets players Players of American football from Cleveland Los Angeles Kiss players Tennessee Volunteers football players Montreal Alouettes players Players of Canadian football from Cleveland American football cornerbacks Canadian football defensive backs