Even the coaches who saw Julian Edelman throw a football every day were surprised to see him throw it in an NFL playoff game last week.
Now, they say, everybody — especially the Indianapolis Colts, who play Edelman's New England Patriots in Sunday's AFC championship game — had better be ready for anything Edelman might do. Not just because now they've seen his arm, but because he has a long history of doing anything necessary to make his presence known in a game.
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"Julian was one of those guys who has a little chip on his shoulder. He always wants to prove something to people," said Doug Martin, Edelman's coach at Kent State when he was among college football's most dangerous dual-threat quarterbacks.
"Tell Julian no, and he's the one guy who will insist on yes," said Steve Nicolopulos, who coached Edelman at Woodside High School in Redwood City, Calif., 25 miles south of San Francisco.
As it relates to Edelman's option-pass touchdown in the Patriots' victory over the Baltimore Ravens last week, that was an example of a guy who went undefeated in his senior year of high school, but didn't get any four-year college offers and landed in junior college for a year. He passed for more than 1,800 yards and ran for more than 1,300 as a Kent State senior in 2008, but was told he'd only play quarterback professionally in Canada.
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Edelman was fast (4.51 in the 40 at his pro day) and elusive, which excited scouts. But he was, and is, listed at 5-10. He had no intention of playing anywhere except the NFL. So, as most college quarterbacks do when the NFL finds them unsuitable for various reasons, he learned a new position, wide receiver.
Too bad, said Martin, now coach at New Mexico State. "I was glad to see how well he could still throw," he said. "He threw a perfect ball. He's a playmaker. I'm not surprised he executed it, really."
Martin knows quarterbacks — he also coached future NFL multi-threat Josh Cribbs at Kent State, and David Garrard at East Carolina. Edelman was the real thing, he said, but his size cost him. Thus, Martin said, to get him on video at other positions for NFL scouts, in his senior year he had Edelman play a few snaps at receiver, return punts, even punt.
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Nicolopulos, now a physical education teacher at Woodside after a stretch as athletic director, figured Edelman would pick up the new position well: "As a quarterback, you need to know all the route trees, see plays develop and such. Technique-wise, he's learned a lot. But he's a bright individual and a hard worker."
As a Patriot the past six years, he has lined up all over the field, emerged as the team's go-to receiver in the past two seasons with 197 total catches, and has been the primary punt returner. But Edelman had never thrown a pass until Sunday.
"I would have thought that would have occurred some time in his career," Nicolopulos said. "Possibly playing some wildcat. That was a big thing back then."
Martin had figured the same thing, especially after Cribbs, whose single-season total-yardage mark at Kent State Edelman had surpassed, got to take snaps and throw the ball (or threaten to throw) regularly with the Cleveland Browns. Cribbs had the stronger arm, Edelman the more accurate arm, he said.
Plus, he added, as great as Cribbs and Garrard were, "I've never coached a quarterback who was more competitive than Julian."
In a sense, seeing Edelman throw wasn't a total shock. Still, he pulled off something he hadn't done when it counted since he'd been in the NFL, but was still prepared enough to do perfectly.
"He's kind of slipped under the radar a lot," Nicolopulos said. "That's kind of the way things have gone for him, ever since high school."
