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AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File
The going has been slow for the Colts so far in free agency.
And although that was expected in terms of players joining the Colts – they are against the salary cap and rarely join the big-money, high-risk first week of NFL free agency, anyway – it has also has been true of the most high-profile player leaving the team.
Marvin Harrison, a 13-year NFL veteran and an eight-time Pro Bowl wide receiver, was released last week in what Colts President Bill Polian called a salary-cap move. And while there was speculation last week about Harrison's future team, speculation that focused on his hometown team, the Philadelphia Eagles, and the Miami Dolphins, there has been little followup this week.
Last week's release came after a season during which media and fans debated why Harrison's numbers dropped dramatically.
Some believed Harrison was still the player he was before, that he was a victim of the timing being off between he and quarterback Peyton Manning. Those people cited several occasions throughout the season on which Harrison beat defenders deep only to have Manning misfire.
Others believed age and injury had slowed Harrison. Those people cited Harrison not having had a 100-yard game since 2006, and a 60-catch, 636-yard season – statistics far below those of his Pro Bowl seasons (1999-2006).
The early days of free agency seems to have sided with the latter group, a group that did not include Polian, Manning or then-head coach Tony Dungy. All said repeatedly during the season they saw the same player in Harrison they had for nearly a decade.
And while they would know, there was this item written by Sports Illustrated writer Peter King this past weekend, saying he'd be surprised if Harrison played again:
Here’s the thing about Harrison: He’s made more than $80 million in his 13-year career, including $23 million over the last three seasons. He was due to make $9 million this year. His knees are hurt and he doesn’t love football enough at this point to play for something like $2 million plus incentives. In fact, I don’t think he loves football much at all right now, feeling the way he feels. And he’s not going to fake it. Might he go to someone’s camp this summer? Only if the gets real money to do so.
The Indianapolis Star also wrote about Harrison this past week. Harrison rarely speaks publicly, and he sure wasn't doing so this week, so the Star interviewed former Colts Hall of Fame wide receiver Raymond Berry, who spoke about his own decline late in his career:
My 12th year in the National Football League, I had a very good year and physically I was fine. I came back for my 13th year and the lights on the instrument panel started blinking. I didn't recognize what was happening, but my body was no longer the same, and it started showing up in training camp with a muscle pulled here and there that I'd never had before. My knee started swelling; I'd never had that before. To make a long story short, if I'd have known what was going to happen my 13th year, I'd never have come back because my body was not up to it. . . .”
This isn't saying that King's right, that Harrison won't play again. There's part of Harrison that I can't believe won't want to prove people such as King wrong, but with the news about Harrison as quiet as that around the Colts, King's point looks less silly by the day.
Do you think Harrison will play again? We'd love to hear from you. Leave feedback at the bottom of the story.
NOTE: For more on the Colts' free-agency happenings -- or non-happenings, as it were -- here's the link to The Indy Football Report.
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