Raymond James Edwards Jr. (born January 1, 1985) is a former

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formation (American football), formations over the years have substantially ...

. He was selected by the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. The Vikings compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. Founded in 1960 as ...

in the fourth round of the

2006 NFL draft The 2006 NFL draft, the 71st in league history, took place in New York City, New York, at Radio City Music Hall on April 29 and April 30, 2006. For the 27th consecutive year, the draft was telecast on ESPN and ESPN2, with additional coverage offe ...

. 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 ...

Purdue Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donat ...

Early life

Edwards attended Woodward High School in Cincinnati and was a student and a letterman in football and basketball. In football, he was a two-year starter and posted 20.0 sacks, 110 tackles, and seven forced fumbles as a senior.

College career

Edwards played college football for three years at

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1 ...

school Purdue from 2003 to 2005. In his college career, Edwards played 36 games (starting in 18). He recorded a total of 16 sacks and received many honors including ''All-Freshmen team choice'' by ''The Sporting News'' (2003), honorable mention ''All-Big Ten'' (2004) and semifinalist for the ''

Ted Hendricks Theodore Paul Hendricks (born November 1, 1947), nicknamed "the Mad Stork," is a Guatemalan-American former professional football linebacker who played for 15 seasons with the Baltimore Colts, the Green Bay Packers, and the Oakland / Los Angel ...

Defensive End of the Year Award'' (2005).

Professional career

Minnesota Vikings

Edwards was selected as the 127th pick (fourth round) of the

. During his rookie season, he appeared in 15 of the 16 regular season games, (the most for a Vikings rookie that year) and started in 2 of the last 4 games. He recorded 3 sacks and 10

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 ...

. In 2007 Edwards had 5 sacks and 30 tackles in 12 games. He scored one

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 ...

on a fumble recovery against

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

. On December 5, Edwards was suspended for four games by the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

for a violation of the league's Steroid policy. He was not eligible to play for the remainder of the Vikings regular season. In 2008 Edwards made 55 tackles and 5 sacks as the starting left defensive end after the acquisition of

Jared Allen Jared Scot Allen (born April 3, 1982) is an American former professional football player who was a defensive end in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons. A five-time Pro Bowler and four-time All-Pro selection, he recorded 136 car ...

. In 2009, Edwards had a breakout year, recording 8.5 sacks, and having a strong performance against the Dallas Cowboys in the Divisional Round of the post-season. Edwards became a restricted free agent in the 2010 offseason due to the CBA dispute instead of an unrestricted FA as he would have been if there were a labor agreement. The Vikings gave him a first-round restricted free agent tender. He signed the tender on June 14, 2010, after deciding to miss the Vikings offseason program.

Atlanta Falcons

On July 29, 2011, Edwards was signed by the

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. The Falcons were founded o ...

to a five-year contract for 30 million dollars with 11 million dollars guaranteed. During the Falcons' 8–1 start in 2012, Edwards was largely invisible, with most of his snaps being taken by players with much lower salaries. Edwards was released by the Falcons on November 12, 2012.

NFL career statistics

Regular season

Playoffs

Catfish

In a 2020 episode of '' Catfish: The TV Show'', hosts

Nev Schulman Yaniv "Nev" Schulman ( ; born September 26, 1984) is an American TV host and producer. He is best known for the 2010 documentary film ''Catfish'' and the follow-up TV series '' Catfish: The TV Show'' on MTV of which he is the host and executive ...

and

Kamie Crawford Kameran "Kamie" Crawford (born October 25, 1992) is an American television and podcast host, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model and former beauty queen who was crowned Miss Teen USA 2010 on July 24, 2010 at the Atlantis Paradise Island Resort in ...

discover that the

catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order (biology), order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Catfish are common name, named for their prominent barbel (anatomy), barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, though not ...

they are tracking down in the episode used Edwards's photos in his fake

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

account, along with two other men's photos.

Boxing

Edwards made his professional boxing debut at a Minnesota casino on May 20, 2011, defeating Tyrone Gibson in a four-round bout. Edwards told the Star Tribune that he had signed a two-fight contract. His trainer was Jeff Warner, a former heavyweight boxer and pro wrestler.

Professional boxing record

, style="text-align:center;" colspan="8", 12 Wins (7 knockouts, 5 decisions), 1 Losses, 1 Draws , - , align=center style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3", Res. , align=center style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3", Record , align=center style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3", Opponent , align=center style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3", Type , align=center style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3", Rd., Time , align=center style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3", Date , align=center style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3", Location , align=center style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3", Notes , -align=center , Loss , align=center, 12-1-1, , align=left, Keenan "Good Burger" Hickman , , , , align=left, , align=left, , -align=center , Win , align=center, 12-0-1, , align=left, Daniel Pasciolla , , , , align=left, , align=left, , -align=center , Win , align=center, 11-0-1, , align=left, Steven Tyner , , , , align=left, , align=left, , -align=center , Draw , align=center, 10-0-1, , align=left, Grover Young , , , , align=left, , align=left, , -align=center , Win , align=center, 10-0-0, , align=left, Efren "Doc" Brown , , , , align=left, , align=left, , -align=center , Win , align=center, 9–0, , align=left, Brandon "Sizzler" Spencer , , , , align=left, , align=left, , -align=center , Win , align=center, 8–0, , align=left, D. J. "Don't get me confused with DL" Hughley , , , , align=left, , align=left, , -align=center , Win , align=center, 7–0, , align=left, Sam "I Am" Coming , , , , align=left, , align=left, , -align=center , Win , align=center, 6–0, , align=left, Raymuendo Lopez , , , , align=left, , align=left, , -align=center , Win , align=center, 5–0, , align=left, Alex Rozman , , , , align=left, , align=left, , -align=center , Win , align=center, 4–0, , align=left, "Mini" Van Goodman , , , , align=left, , align=left, , -align=center , Win , align=center, 3–0, , align=left, Nick "Turbo Tax" Capes , , , , align=left, , align=left, , -align=center , Win , align=center, 2–0, , align=left, Cory "Spare Tire" Briggs , , , , align=left, , align=left, , -align=center , Win , align=center, 1–0, , align=left, Tyrone Gibson , , , , align=left, , align=left,

References

External links

Minnesota Vikings bio
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Ray 1985 births Living people Players of American football from Cincinnati American football defensive ends Purdue Boilermakers football players Minnesota Vikings players Atlanta Falcons players American sportspeople in doping cases Doping cases in American football Woodward High School (Cincinnati, Ohio) alumni