His future was limitless. Sure, he was a bit undersized, but Oregon's Joey Harrington could throw the football. Joey Heisman had a billboard in Times Square for goodness sake.
And now, here he stands a free agent.
One has to wonder how this all came to be. He's a great guy. His background is flawless. You would never find him in a strip club smacking dancers around with the butt-end of his handgun. He never got suspended for drugs. He never, ever, got out of hand with the media ala Ryan Leaf. Nice guys really do finish last I suppose.
But is he finished?
The better question is what the hell happened? First of all, Detroit and Matt Millen and their inefficient running game and offensive line killed him (not too mention high-profile receivers that never amounted to anything). His confidence couldn't have fallen further if it was up on that Times Square billboard. Next thing you know, Harrington can't make the simple passes and every Detroit fan boos the kid incessantly.
While the former Duck never lost faith in his religion, he may just have lost faith in himself.
When he finally got out of Detroit, he didn't get into a system of support. Detroit fans could blame Harrington for their mediocrity all they like, but they still haven't figured out how to integrate balance into their offense.
The same could be said of Miami. He never had an overly strong supporting cast there, and while he shined initially (most notably taking it to the Lions at Ford Field), it wasn't long before interceptions pulled down his star and put him on the bench in favor of Cleo Lemon.
Atlanta came calling. Harrington earned the backup spot and next thing you know, Mike Vick gave him the starting gig. Harrington said it was the most confident he'd felt his entire career. He showed it at first, leading Atlanta before those dang ill-advised throws came creeping back into his psyche.
Benched again, and now released, will he ever realize that billboard? Will he even get the chance? To say he's not deserving would be untrue, but it also might be right. He's had his chances, and each time, he's thrown his way to the bench.
He and we can blame the turbulent environments he played in, but the fact is Harrington is a head case. Head cases don't make good quarterbacks. I say he should just get to work on producing the third generation Harrington Oregon quarterback before his confidence starts to effect other areas of his 'playing ability.'
About Me
- samcam
- Seattle, WA
- I looked at everything and felt fine with it. You know, at peace. Not that everything was perfect. But it was life. I was living it, and that alone felt pretty damn good. But there was more than that. Much more. An unexplainable amount of goodness more. It was all this good stuff that made it even better. Worth it. Fun.
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