Safety net for Harrison

FOXBOROUGH -- Rodney Harrison is one of the few active NFL players whose jersey wouldn't look misplaced among the throwbacks at Mitchell & Ness Nostalgia Co. He's old school. He plays hurt, above the speed limit, and to the echo of the whistle. During competition, he's more likely to extend an elbow than a hand. He's into putting opponents down, not helping them up. It's great that he's in New England, but he would have been a perfect Raider. Ted Hendricks and Jack Tatum would have been proud to call him their teammate.

Just like any mother would be proud to call Rondey Harrison her son.

Harrison is old school off the field, as well, because his mother, Barbara, comes from the old school. She is the oldest of eight children. Her three sisters and four brothers were raised in Chicago by their mother, Helen Ketchum, who taught them to address adults as "sir" or "madam." Barbara Harrison refers to Patriots coach Bill Belichick, nine years her junior, as "Mr. Belichick." It is no wonder then, that Rodney Harrison answered Belichick with, "Yes, sir," when the coach reminded Harrison after last Sunday's AFC Championship game that there was another game to be played, after Harrison, signed last March after being released by the San Diego Chargers, thanked Belichick for "believing in me."

Barbara Harrison raised three children by herself in the Chicago suburb of Markham, Ill. She and their father divorced when Rodney was about 18 months old. Rodney, 31, is the youngest; he has a brother, Raymond (38), and a sister, Tawnja (34). Barbara Harrison's brother, Thomas Ketchum, was a big help with Rodney.

Not that Barbara Harrison needed much help. Raymond and Rodney were her babies, but she didn't baby them. Barbara Harrison raised her boys to be respectable men, and she ran her home the way her son, a Pro Bowl alternate and the Patriots' leading tackler (140) this season, does New England's secondary. She didn't allow phone conversations after 10 p.m. If you lived under her roof, you got your homework done and you went to bed at a decent hour. In the Harrison house, you didn't think of setting up the ironing board in the morning. "If you didn't iron at night, buddy," Barbara Harrison recalled yesterday from Chicago, "you went out wrinkled."

Going out in certain parts of Chicago could be dangerous, so Barbara Harrison did what she could to make certain Rodney came home. For example, if a young lady in whom Rodney was interested wasn't fortunate enough to live in as nice (read: safe) a neighborhood as the Harrisons, Barbara would drive the young lady to her home to keep Rodney out of danger. "Rather than him get in trouble, because, you know, there's a lot of gangs in Chicago," she said.

Rodney joining one was never a concern, however. "Rodney was always a good listener," his mother said. "Some kids have to have their head bumped before they listen. All you had to do was tell Rodney he would get his head bumped, and he would listen. He was a joy to raise. He was the one child I had who would always listen. He wouldn't say anything. He would just shake his head and go to his room."

Rodney Harrison hasn't said everything he probably would like to about San Diego coach Marty Schottenheimer, who let Harrison go after nine seasons as a Charger, the last of which he spent limping around with a torn groin. It still hurts (what he believes was an act of disrespect, not the groin), but his mother taught him better. Anyway, he's in a better situation.

"I expected it," Harrison said last week. "I didn't get too low. I never allow anyone to break my confidence in myself. I knew that I could still play football, that wasn't a question. I had a lot of confidence in myself and my ability to go out there and play, but it was disappointing, after nine years of service, you go out there and play hurt, and everybody thinks you're washed up."

The Patriots did not, and thanks in part to both divine intervention and their own intervention, Harrison signed with them (six years, roughly $14 million) instead of with Oakland or Denver. "Obviously, it wasn't me," Harrison said. "I didn't wait until I got here to start praying about it. I prayed about it on the plane. I basically asked the Lord, `Wherever you want me to go, if you could, show me the signs and lead me that way and I'm going to trust in you.' And that's what happened. I don't know what happened in the meetings that made me say, `I'm going to sign,' but I believed in Belichick and he believed in me."

Harrison was raised in a religious home. He attended Catholic grammar school and starred at Marian Catholic High in Chicago Heights, Ill. "He believes in The Word," Barbara Harrison said. "He's not the type to go to church and jump up and down, but he reads his Bible." And he does his best to live by its teachings. Eight years ago, Rodney bought his mother a new home in Olympia Fields, Ill. Ten years ago, he opened two Chicago barber shops, Sporting Image and Sporting Image II, which his mother operates. He is about to buy his older sister a new home. His mother likes that she can call her son a faithful husband.

There's about to be a new addition to the Harrison household. Rodney is married to his college (Western Illinois) sweetheart, Ericka, and they're expecting their first child together, a son, early next month. Barbara Harrison says her son has cared for his wife's 10-year-old daughter, Michele, as if she were his own.

Indeed, life could not be better for Rodney Harrison. He is about to play in the Super Bowl for the first time since his rookie year, when he was a special teamer rather than a special player. He's spent some $8,000, his mother said, on 16 tickets for friends and relatives, including his mother, to attend next Sunday's game at Reliant Stadium in Houston.

"There's not a player in the NFL who deserves this honor more than Rodney," Barbara Harrison said. "This experience has been wonderful. It's been overwhelming. And of course, he's taking nothing for granted." He's asked his family and friends not to call him after tomorrow. "He's working," his mother said. "He's going to Houston to do a job. And he's going to leave his heart on that field."

That will be no small feat. Thanks to his mother, though, the size of Rodney Harrison's head doesn't match that of his heart. "I'm very blessed," he said. "I'm not taking anything for granted. I thank Him everyday throughout the day just for having this opportunity in life, to be a positive influence on people and to be able to share my experiences with people, and to be able to share this experience with my family. It's been great. I'm just very happy and grateful for all that's going on right now."

"When you come from humble beginnings," his mother added, "and you're blessed to take certain steps in life, you have to be grateful, because it can be taken from you. I believe in eating everything on your plate, but don't be gluttonous. Don't get full of yourself."

The chances are slim of that happening, even now. Barbara Harrison, as they say, doesn't play that. "I've always had a mom that kept things in perspective, and she really never allowed me to get full of myself," Rodney Harrison said. "Especially when you're a professional athlete, the more and more that you understand the ups and downs that goes on with being a professional athlete, the older you get, you have a better perspective, you're settled in your life, and you understand that it's not about you. There's a higher calling. It's God blessing you. It's not, `I went out there and did everything myself.' You've got to give Him praise and glory. I have to have a foundation, I have to have a balance in my life. That's why I have God and my family.

"Why do you think a lot of guys go through what they go through now? Because they don't have balance in their life. You still have temptation. But if I didn't have balance in my life, it wouldn't be a problem to go out and cheat on my wife, disrespect people, walk around like I'm the man. I try to just to stay humble, because just as quick as you get put on that pedestal, you get knocked down."