Vikes' Edwards preps for looming season in legendary Kronk Gym

The term "low motor" is scout-speak for lazy.

That was the book on Ray Edwards coming out of Purdue before the 2006 NFL draft. Edwards was good, but he wasn't consistently great. He showed flashes, but didn't dominate. Four seasons after entering the league with the Minnesota Vikings as a fourth-round draft pick, Edwards has begun to pair his freakish physical gifts with on-field production.

After Edwards' 8.5 sacks with the Vikings during the regular season, and four more in two playoff games, nothing looked wrong with his motor in 2010. When talent evaluators are wrong, there's scout-speak for that too: They say scouting isn't an "exact science."

That much is apparent after Edwards opted to spend his final week of the offseason in Detroit's legendary Kronk Gym with Hall of Fame boxing trainer Emanuel Steward. For five days Edwards practiced a science that may not be exact, but according to Steward, may be too sweet for Edwards to leave behind.

"We start off with abs," Edwards said as he described a workout with Steward, "then I do a couple of rounds working on footwork ... then you throw the pads on and work on your jab, you work on your one-two combination, and just moving around ... do that for about three or four rounds, then you get out of the ring and hit the heavy bag for about three rounds, then I do abs again, then I stretch out."

There's a beat where Edwards allows the rigors of the routine, performed in the oppressive heat of the Detroit dungeon that has produced boxing legends like Tommy Hearns and Michael Moorer, to sink in.

"Yeah," he said. "We workin'."

It seems odd that Edwards, a 25-year-old defender who will play this season under a one-year restricted free agent tender, was even there at all. But Edwards feels compelled to look beyond this season, knowing that the owners could lock out the players next year.

"Everything I do, I do it for a reason," he said. "There's a lot of uncertainty out there with our organization right now, so I'm not trying to put everything in one basket, so if something does happen, I'm set up for the next thing I want to do in my life."

It turns out what Edwards wants to do is fight.