Though often overlooked, Broncos' Harris is now one of NFL's top CBs - SI.com
The coach was accustomed to such comments from Harris, who quit football once in middle school and pondered doing so again before his junior year of high school. The game had always come second, until the spring of 2006. By that time, Harris had offers to play basketball at Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Tulsa, but Howell thought he could drum up interest from football programs, especially those visiting to... Howell wouldn’t let up, telling Harris he had a chance to be something special. “I’m a football player, aren’t I. ” Harris asked his coach, and Howell sighed with relief. ” From that moment, Harris honed in on football, developing the kind of technique only year-round attention to the game can grow. He’d always been the smartest player on the field, but in his senior year, he learned the little things: the footwork, the field placement, what to look for at the snap. The Jayhawks would be Harris’s only offer, and off to Lawrence he went. Unbeknownst to Harris, Kansas was desperately seeking a second cornerback to play alongside Talib, then a hotshot senior. The school had brought in a junior college player it though could fill that role, but Kendrick Harper sustained an injury in fall camp, and soon enough, Harris, a virtual unknown, was getting his reps. Thirty-nine cornerbacks heard their names called on the final weekend of April, but not Harris. Source: www.si.com
