 He also mentored youths who faced similar physical challenges and befriended those who faced terminal disease.Edwards also became an active participant in the Gridiron Heroes Spinal Cord Injury Foundation.He became very close friends with Chris Canales, the co-founder of the website, who like Edwards was an all-district defensive back who had suffered a spinal cord injury, in Canales' case while making a tackle playing for San Marcos Baptist Academy in 2001.