In life, everybody takes a different path to accomplish their dream. Some take a take traditional route, while others take the non-traditional. For University of New Hampshire wide receiver R.J. Harris, he is embracing his path to the NFL.
Harris, an Odenton, Maryland native, collected many accolades over his four-year career at UNH. The 6-foot, 200 lbs. receiver is the CAA all-time leader in career receptions with 310. He also has 4,328 receiving yards, 36 receiving touchdowns and 5,019 all purpose yards. Harris credits his accomplishments to his teammates and just playing any role that is asked of him.
With him accomplishing so much over his four-year career, he was invited to the Medal of Honor Bowl. For those, who do not know, the Medal of Honor Bowl is an all-star game for seniors from all levels. They get a chance to showcase their talents for scouts, but also celebrate the brave men and women of the United States military.
Harris talked to us about his experience at the Medal of Honor Bowl.
“Honestly, just for starters, it was a blessing that I was even able to be there. You know, just being able to be recognized in the country with some of the top players, I was just blessed to be there.”
Harris’s numbers over his career backs up why he was apart of the MofH Bowl, and his 2014 season was just as phenomenal. He finished with 100 receptions for 1,551 yards and 15 receiving touchdowns.
Despite his production over his career, Harris knows as a D1-AA NFL Draft prospect that his path is not as easy as a D1 NFL Draft prospect.
“My path is the path that involves playing at a smaller D1-AA school, and you know I’m just going to embrace that, do whatever it takes. I feel like coming from a small school that just means you have to work twice as hard,” he said.
Harris’ attitude of doing whatever it takes to play at the next level, is what every athlete in any sport should strive to have.
“Everyday do something better than what you did yesterday and if you have that attitude, you can’t go wrong. I never want to get complacent and just be comfortable where I’m at. Its always someone working to get where you at,” he said.
When you watch R.J. Harris’ film, you can see that he can play at the NFL level and all it takes is a team giving him a chance. But in his eyes, Harris is not afraid to take the non-traditional route to play in the NFL as he loves the game of football.
“It’s something I love, its something I’m really passionate about and as long as I’m able to live and be healthy enough, God’s grace to be able to play, I’m going to ride that wave as long as possible.”
Harris also adds, “I love football ever since I was a young kid and always had dreams playing professionally so if one door shuts that doesn’t shut the whole playing football dream completely down.”
Make no mistake, Harris will be on either a NFL or CFL roster, as he can play at the next level. He has the right mentality, catches everything thrown to him and is a team player. We need more players like Harris in the NFL as he embraces his path to achieve his dream.
If you missed my interview with Harris, you can check it out below:
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/198039191″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]You can also check out Harris’s highlight video below as well:
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