The Guy Named Harrison: Book One

77

Harrison's favorite part of practice was when he got to catch passes. Then he and the guys would jog before going into their respective drills.

He jogged across the field and stretched his hands out at the last second to catch the pass. Harrison threw the ball back to their linebacker coach and jogged back to the end of the line.

Watching all the offensive players catch passes, Harrison realized he wanted to get in on the action as well. That's why he got so excited after an interception, because he got to catch the ball. And that was something he was able to hardy do playing defense.

It was his turn again. This time he and the others started in the middle of the field. Then the coach pointed the ball to his right. Harrison ran to the right and backwards on an angle. Then he ran to the left and back to the right before he caught the pass.

Harrison decided to take this one to the house. As he ran he shouted, "the 30, the 20, the 10!"

Ben ran beside him and attempted to look like a defender. Harrison let him catch up before suddenly cutting back and heading towards the other side of the end zone. Reaching the goal line, he did a flip into the end zone.

"TOUCHDOWN!"

Then he tossed the ball back to the coach as Luke teased, "you should play offense."

"NO!" Everyone else shouted. "We need you on D."

He rejoined the line. "I should be a tight end. You better watch out Greg."

"Yeah right," Greg teased back.

The Panthers were thinking about trying Harrison on offense on third down and short when they were most likely going to run the ball and try for a first down. He would come in as the second tight end, after Greg, and he utilized in the run game. Then they could even try a fake and dump off a pass to him.

Harrison could do everything on the field. He was the best linebacker in the game, and was in line for another Defensive Player of the Year award. He could catch, which was one reason he'd be good on third down situations. And he was strong enough to block. Just like he could break through the line of scrimmage on defense, he was strong enough to hold back those defensive lineman and linebackers from the offensive side.

"Harrison, do you want to work on some blocking?"

"Oh yeah!"

❺❾

After practice, Harrison went and signed autographs like he always did when it started to snow. It was really coming down hard, some of the hardest snow he'd ever seen in his 7 years living in North Carolina.

He loved snow but not in North Carolina. Some people had never driven in snow before, and driving in the snow down here got a little scary. Mostly because some people didn't know what they were doing when it came to driving in snow. He was from Chicago, so he was used to it, but in an area that hardly got any snow, when it came, it was scary to be on the roads.

Handing another football back, Harrison shivered for the first time. He quickly realized that the while long sleeve shirt he had on underneath his blue practice jersey and pads wasn't going to cut it for too long.

He could feel the cold air through his socks and white pants as well. As he signed a jersey, he could barely feel his fingers.

"Can we get a picture?" Somebody asked.

"Yeah."

He posed for a picture. All the other players were gone, leaving just him to complete the line. Harrison wasn't sure he was going to make it.

"You look a little cold," somebody said to him.

Harrison handed a replica Panthers helmet back. "Just a little. I'm from Chicago so I'm used to it."

"Can we get a picture?"

"Sure."

He and a fan took yet another picture when the snow started coming down even harder. He was now desperate to head inside and home to Carrie to cuddle up with a few cups of hot chocolate.

"HARRISON!"

Normally he never looked up when his name was called like that. Because fans shouted his name all the time. But this voice sounded urgent.

"Yeah?"

"You better come quick."

"Why?"

"It's Carrie."

Harrison shoved the football back to its owner and sprinted inside. "What happened to Carrie?" He demanded.

"She got in an accident."