Deconstructing the "Silverback"
That's the Steelers' longtime nickname for James Harrison because, well, he's gorilla-warfare scary.
Forthwith, a few more factoids about the NFL Defensive Player of the Year profiled by some hack writer in today's paper:
> Winning happens around this guy. Coventry High in Akron, Ohio, fashioned three of its half-dozen winning seasons in the past 40 years while Harrison was a fullback-linebacker-punter there, 25-5 in all. Kent State enjoyed its first winning season in 14 years, and it's sole above-.500 record in the past 20 years, when he buried Ben Roethlisberger and Miami (Ohio) in the final seconds of the 2001 regular-season finale to seal a triumph and a 6-5 record. And the Steelers? Perhaps not so coincidentally, they've gone 62-26 and won a Super Bowl since he made the 2004 roster, and they've gone 29-12 in games he started.
> He will be inducted this winter into the inaugural class of the sports hall of fame of a Coventry High where he didn't really return after his 1997 graduation until school officials honored him following Super Bowl XL.
> OK, so lotsa athletes have the names of their grandmamas or mamas tattooed on them. But this baby of 14 has both his mother and father -- Mildred/James -- emblazoned on his left pec, right above his heart.
> One more high-school tale: Given the green light to fake when there was no rush on a punt, he took off late in a 36-0 romp against a rival with a crowd giving him considerable grief. He ran half the length of the field, ran over the quarterback-defensive back who at halftime was named homecoming king, and scored a touchdown.
> One more college tale: Scott Booker -- a Shady Side Academy alum, fellow Kent State defensive player and now the Golden Flashes' secondary coach -- said he was out recruiting this week when a former Bowling Green lineman thanked Harrison for turning around that program. See, Harrison in their 2001 meeting thumped and then intercepted starting quarterback Andy Sahm, whereupon the new Falcons coaching staff yanked Sahm and inserted a Josh Harris who from there steered them to a 24-8 record plus a bowl game, not to mention he became a 2004 Baltimore Ravens draftee. Such success enhanced the careers of the new staff, too. . . for then-first-year coach Urban Meyer went on to Utah and Florida, where Thursday he won his second national championship in three years.
Finally, video evidence, including the sacking of a runaway Browns fan in 2005 and his Monday-night-interception hurdle of LaDainian Tomlinson (a move he used time and again in high school):