Lewis and Edwards to meet today

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- When Marvin Lewis takes the field for the first time as an NFL head coach, Herman Edwards will be there to greet him.
"It is going to be fun," Lewis said. "Obviously, Herman is a man I have a lot of respect for. He's been a very good friend of mine and a mentor, so I'm excited."
Lewis and Edwards are two of the league's three active black head coaches, and they face each other today in an exhibition game between the Cincinnati Bengals and New York Jets. The two met while Lewis was still an assistant at the University of Pittsburgh in the early 1990s and developed a strong friendship. Edwards knows exactly what Lewis will be going through Sunday.
The third-year coach still remembers his first exhibition game, a 20-10 loss to Atlanta in 2001. He also remembers being an assistant under Tony Dungy in Tampa Bay, when Dungy faced another black coach for the first time in 1996 -- good friend Dennis Green of Minnesota.
"That was a significant mark in football for me to watch those two guys," Edwards said. "For Marvin it's a long time coming. When you meet a guy like that, another African-American coach, there's not that many. You remember those.
"It doesn't hit you now but 25 years from now, when you look back on the history of professional football, it will be a historical moment for us and for me."