Marvin Harrison, Rewriting the Record Book and Redefining Introversion

You don't know anything about Marvin Harrison, and Marvin Harrison would like to keep it that way. The league's most difficult cover opens up up Sally Jenkins in this Washington Post article, but only to talk about how much he hates opening up.

He rarely talks to his offensive coordinator. He keeps a low profile in the locker room. Even his best friend on the team, Dwight Freeney, says that Harrison is impossible to know. He won't talk about his off-field interests, nor what he plans to do with his master's degree that he's three credits away from. Look at this quote:

"I'd prefer to play in an empty stadium," he says softly. "It would be, um, not less embarrassing, but I don't like the focus directly on me, not anything, no one, no cameras. If I had to I would just play in front of no fans."

While the Colts might not want to use that particular quote in next year's marketing campaign (Hey fans! You can buy tickets if you want, but Marvin Harrison would rather you weren't there!), but I think it's cool. Marvin Harrison's a guy who just wants to do his job, he wants to do it better than you, and he's going to find a way to do it. On Sundays, nothing else matters to him. Just playing the best he can.

It's an outstanding article by Sally Jenkins, and has some great quotes from teammates and friends, including a story about how he once reluctantly agreed to race the school's best sprinter in high school, and then smoked him as every teacher and student in the place looked on.