The Afternoon Fix

Close to 100 spectators were on hand along with 10 teams playing in the 8-on-8 tournament.

“It is a blessing to come back here and give back to my community,” Charles said. “With the lockout, I can be here as long as possible.”

Charles played on one of the teams, The Renegades, with several former Memorial teammates, but for most of the day he was walking around the park making sure everything was running smoothly.

Young does not have a football team to play for, but he is unmistakably a football star. Which is why a fundraising event for a State of Texas-sponsored organization called Generation Texas, billed as a “grassroots movement” to impress upon youngsters the importance of going to college, can become a place to get starstruck, if you’re so inclined. A handful of other NFL players with varying degrees of recognition turned out, too. Former Texas star Derrick Johnson, now with the Kansas City Chiefs, generated the most buzz.

Maybe some other team will see that potential, and pay Edwards what he wants. This year’s crop (which is still to be determined, thanks to the lockout) could potentially include Tamba Hali of the Chiefs, Cullen Jenkins of the Packers, Charles Johnson of the Panthers and Mathias Kiwanuka of the Giants.

Hali is the cream of the crop, he was a outside backer in Kansas City’s 3-4 and he finished 2010 with 14.5 sacks and he’s only 27 years old. Jenkins and Kiwanuka are in similar situations as Kampman and Vanden Bosch. And Johnson is a young player, like Edwards, who has shown at times he can sack the passer — Johnson had seven sacks last year. Edwards is somewhere in the middle of that group.