Rodney Harrison is the biggest hitter in the biggest game.
In a Super Bowl on Sunday between the violent defenses of the New England Patriots and Carolina Panthers, nobody will be more respected, reviled or ready to “rip somebody’s head off” than the Patriots’ safety from the South Side of Chicago.
“I play with an inner rage,” he said Wednesday. “I don’t know what it is. I play with a chip on my shoulder. Ever since I was 7, I have played the same way.”
Maybe it was seeing his mother, Barbara, raising three kids by herself, spending $40 to sign her youngest up for football at 7.
“She had a light bill due. It was 40 bucks,” Harrison said. “That was the last money she had. We didn’t know if the lights would be cut off or not. “
Maybe it’s trying to prove himself because the San Diego Chargers released him after his ninth season.
“They fired me,” he said. “Didn’t think I could play anymore. I live in Atlanta, but they didn’t think I could play anymore, so they didn’t want me.”
Maybe it’s because he’s emotional about becoming a father any day now.
“My dad wasn’t around. Of course, he wants to come around now,” he said. “This is my first son and the opportunity to be a dad and be a great one, I’m very excited about.”
Maybe he’s thanking older brother Raymond.
“He used to beat me up, try to bring out toughness in me,” he said. “I was one of those physical kids who wanted to play with the big kids and get into fights. I’d get beat up and come back with a stick or a bat. I will hunt you down.”
Maybe he wants to show all the colleges that failed to recruit him out of Marian Catholic in Chicago Heights. Only Western Illinois offered him a scholarship.
“They said I was too small, too slow, too weak to play in the Big Ten,” Harrison said. “Western gave me the opportunity to get away from the streets. I just wanted to make my mom proud.”
Maybe he simply wants to show rookie Patriots safety Eugene Wilson the way.
Wilson grew up in Merrillville, Ind., not far from Harrison, and went to the University of Illinois. Drafted as a cornerback, Wilson was switched to safety after the Patriots lost their opener 31-0 to Buffalo. The Bills had just signed Lawyer Milloy, the Patriots’ popular safety and team captain released a week earlier, causing teammates to question coach Bill Belichick.
“I didn’t get any tips about hitting people from Rodney, but seeing him hit people makes you want to go out and hit guys like that,” Wilson said. “I guess you could say he got me amped up for it. We don’t talk about where we grew up. Growing up in that area, that may be why we hit so hard.”
Maybe Harrison wants to tell the NFL it shouldn’t sell its violent side and fine its violent players at the same time. Harrison estimates he has paid more than $300,000 in fines for hits league policemen deemed illegal. He was suspended for a game last year.
In the 1999 preseason, it was a hit by Harrison on Rams quarterback Trent Green that wrecked his knee and opened the door for Kurt Warner.
“I’m a lot smarter,” Harrison said. “In the first eight games, I led the team with nine penalties. In the second part, I had zero penalties. The older I’m getting, I guess I’m calming myself down. They fine me time and time again, but it doesn’t stop what I do. It’s amazing how all those Hall of Famers used to hit that way. Now I’m getting fined.”
Maybe Harrison wants to please teammates who made him captain despite a training camp of making enemies. Receiver Troy Brown threw a football at Harrison on the first contact practice. Brown then took off his helmet and tossed it.
“Nobody wanted to talk to me once I got in the locker room, but I didn’t care about that,” Harrison said. “It was about me proving I still have gas left in the tank.”
By the fourth week, Belichick approached Harrison.
“Players came to me and said they would like to see him included in that [captain] group,” Belichick said. “That speaks to the leadership and respect he has.”
“It meant the world to me,” Harrison said.
Linebacker Ted Johnson said: “He has been a huge, huge impact on this defense. We lost a good player in Lawyer Milloy, so they have similar styles. Rodney has a lot of credibility in the locker room. He’s really a good, good human being and his love for the game is genuine.”
Maybe Harrison and Wilson are both simply emulating the 1985 Bears.
“I always wanted to play for the Bears,” Wilson said.
“Gary Fencik, Dave Duerson, Mike Singletary, Walter Payton. They played the game the way it was supposed to be played,” Harrison said. “It was awesome, man. You never get a true appreciation until you’re older. They brought a championship to Chicago when we desperately needed one.”
Maybe he wants to honor the play of his idol, Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott.
“Intimidation is part of everybody’s game,” Harrison said. “When you watch film of someone being nasty, you say, `Man, this guy’s a beast.’ When you see guys just getting their heads knocked off, people take notice.
“Ronnie Lott looked me in the eye (earlier in Harrison’s career) and said, `I respect the way you play. Keep playing the way you play.'”
Maybe he wants to stick it to peers who didn’t vote him to the Pro Bowl.
“If you hit a guy in the mouth and you’re talking smack to him, yelling and screaming, he’s not going to vote you into the Pro Bowl,” he said. “That system is terrible.”
Harrison described his game-day mind-set like this: “Almost like someone walks up to you and hits you in the mouth and stays on you. It’s playing like that for 60 minutes, playing with that type of madness, like you’ve been robbed.
“I love football. It’s like controlled violence. I can be myself playing football. I can put on my helmet, put all the distractions aside and just go and rip somebody’s head off. I’ve knocked myself unconscious.”
Maybe he’s still afraid of the life he left behind.
“If I don’t go to college?” he pondered. “Of course, it was scary. I didn’t want to get caught up in the streets. My mom did a great job of trying to protect me from the streets. It’s easy to get caught up in the easy money, selling drugs, or not doing the right thing, getting a girl pregnant when you’re 15-16 years old. I didn’t do any of that.”
Harrison bought his mother a beauty shop a few years ago. She’ll be at the game. What if Chicago is snowed in?
“I don’t care if I have to get a private jet,” Harrison said. “She’s getting here.”
