Edwards attended Norwood High School in Norwood, Ohio, and started at middle linebacker on the school's football team alongside Robert Bales, whom he replaced as the team's starting middle linebacker as a freshman star.
5-ranked USC Trojans on October 21, 1995, Edwards became the second Fighting Irish player ever to be carried off the field by his teammates; the first was Daniel E. "Rudy" Ruettiger in 1975.
Edwards's senior year he was picked as a team captain at Notre Dame.
[2] Edwards was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the second round of the 1997 NFL draft with the 55th overall pick.
In October 2010, a book by Aaron M. Smith about Edwards's life, Odyssey: From Blue Collar, Ohio To Super Bowl Champion, was published.