The Guy Named Harrison: Book Two

113

It was game day. Harrison was ecstatic as he paced back and forth along the sidelines, waiting for the coin toss. Everyone he passed by, he stopped, gave them a high five and said, "let's go!"

He stopped and grabbed some of his things off the bench. His headband that covered his ears and held his long hair out of his face. Harrison also snapped his hand warmer pouch around his waist that held his gloves. Although there was a light dusting of snow on the field, the cold wasn't going to bother him. He wasn't wearing long sleeves under his black and grey uniform since he knew the adrenaline rush from this afternoons game was going to make him not even feel the cold.

Harrison grabbed his wrist playbook and slid it up his wrist before joining the other captains, Luke, Thomas, Greg, Cam, and Ryan before they headed out for the coin toss. He also got to say hello to today's honorary captain.

"Ready Jet?"

"Yeah!"

"Come on, Luke and I are going to let you choose if we win the toss."

Harrison and his fellow captains jogged out to midfield with Jet for the coin toss. New Orleans was the visiting team, taking tails on the coin toss.

The referee flipped the coin and everyone looked down as the coin landed on heads. Harrison then squatted down beside Jet. "What do you think Jet? Should we kick or receive?"

He thought for a moment. "You should be on defense first."

Harrison shot him a smile before giving him a high five. "That's what I was thinking. I always love to be on D first."

He stood up. "We'd like to kick."

The referee then indicated that New Orleans would be receiving the ball. As Harrison leaned over and shook hands with the Saints captains, Jet did the same.

As they were jogging back to the Panthers sidelines, Jet told Harrison, "you better win."

"We will. Don't you worry."

➄➈

Harrison was loving the sold out crowd. They were being extremely loud tonight and even though the noise made it hard for him to hear his teammates, it was disrupting the Saints offense.

They had the Saints pinned on their own five yard line on third and 23. Their only option was to run the ball to keep the Panthers from picking up the safety.

Harrison was coming in for a blitz and it was obvious there was some confusion on the Saints front line of who was blocking who since Harrison had a straight shot at their quarterback Drew Brees. Even though he wasn't coming from Brees's blind side, he was unblocked as he ran around the offensive line.

It was one of the hardest hits he'd ever delivered. As Drew Brees was in the process of starting his throwing motion, he was hit by Harrison. Harrison lowered his shoulder and blasted him, with his shoulder hitting right in the middle of Drew Brees's stomach. It was so hard that the two of them went flying back a couple of yards further into the end zone.

The ball popped out as soon as Harrison hit him and as it bounced away in the end zone, Mario jumped on top of it to secure a Panthers touchdown.

Harrison was immediately on his feet and celebrating with Mario as the Panthers added on to now have a 14-0 lead. "Let's go!"

Luke jumped on him from behind. "That's how it's done!"

➄➈

The Saints had moved into the red zone for the first time in the game late in the third quarter. They were at the Panthers 17 yard line. The Panthers were already up 24-0 so if the Saints scored right now, it wasn't going to be that much added pressure.

Harrison wasn't going to let that happen.

He was going to lead his Hall of Fame ballot for a few reasons. He was so damn good. Harrison could read almost all of an offense's plays. He could stop anyone. He could change the play at the last second and still give the defense the best chance to make a stop. He was a leader. And he was a playmaker.

Almost every time the Panthers needed a big play, he was the one to make it. Harrison flipped his hips at the last second as the tight end he was covering jumped up in the very front corner of the end zone to catch the pass.

Harrison jumped up in front of him and caught the pass one handed as his feet touched down in bounds and his momentum took him and the tight end out of bounds. As Luke and a couple guys came running over, Harrison couldn't believe he made that interception. The ball hit the tip of his fingertips and he was still able to corral it into his body.

Luke came over and gave him a chest bump. "Hell yeah!"

Harrison's interception saved a touchdown and it also gave the Panthers the ball on their 25 yard line. "That's how it's done!"

➄➈

Harrison and Luke made the last tackle to seal a 27-3 victory over the Saints to keep their Super Bowl hopes alive. They had to win one more game to secure the NFC slot in the Super Bowl. They would face the winner of the Eagles Rams game later tonight.

He gave Luke a fist bump. "Good game."

"You too."

"Let's go out there next Sunday and get another win."

Last update for the year and I probably won't be updating tomorrow. Have a happy and safe New Year!