VonDoom
05-31-2016, 01:43 PM
MMQB reporter Andy Benoit decided for some reason that he wanted to take on an NFL CB one on one. Chris Harris obliged:
On the next play, Chris’s jam was a little more fervid and he rode my hip pocket. No separation was achieved. After that, I ran a short in-and-out pattern, aka a “jerk” route. Chris asked if that was a real route and, affronted, I told him yes, it’s a jerk route that he’s surely seen hundreds of times from Demaryius Thomas in practice. “Oh. Okay,” he said.
A few plays later there was a contested ball and my microphone, strapped tightly around my torso and to the back of my shorts, fell off. I whined, Chris said we need a referee, and I argued that with the mic attached tightly and behind me, the only way it could detach is if someone grabbed it. Illegal contact, maybe even outright pass interference, since the ball had been in the air.
Mic slippage would turn out to be an ongoing problem due to the normal herky-jerkiness of running. After the fourth or fifth time our cameraman fixed mine, I said we’d better also check Chris’s mic. The cameramen quickly said his was fine, and I bristled at the implication that Chris was so much more fluid than me.
Over the next few snaps I ran intermediate and downfield patterns. These were the most fun, particularly when the ball was in the air. I’d track the ball with absolutely no idea where Chris was. Every time I went up, I’d believe it was just me in the picture, that I had somehow shaken him. Then Chris would appear from exactly the angle you’d think he couldn’t possibly be. From there, collisions ensued, sometimes between Chris’s body and mine, but more often between Chris’s hand and the ball.
I wasn’t surprised that Chris hadn’t gone all-out; I was surprised at how blind I’d been to this fact during the heat of battle. I needed more details. From the ground I called out Chris’s name three times before getting his attention. (The five-year-old now feels barely four.) I asked him how hard he had actually gone, what percentage of his effort he’d exerted.
“Maybe 20 to 30,” he said, before thinking a little more and then cruelly deciding on 20
http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/05/31/chris-harris-nfl-denver-broncos
On the next play, Chris’s jam was a little more fervid and he rode my hip pocket. No separation was achieved. After that, I ran a short in-and-out pattern, aka a “jerk” route. Chris asked if that was a real route and, affronted, I told him yes, it’s a jerk route that he’s surely seen hundreds of times from Demaryius Thomas in practice. “Oh. Okay,” he said.
A few plays later there was a contested ball and my microphone, strapped tightly around my torso and to the back of my shorts, fell off. I whined, Chris said we need a referee, and I argued that with the mic attached tightly and behind me, the only way it could detach is if someone grabbed it. Illegal contact, maybe even outright pass interference, since the ball had been in the air.
Mic slippage would turn out to be an ongoing problem due to the normal herky-jerkiness of running. After the fourth or fifth time our cameraman fixed mine, I said we’d better also check Chris’s mic. The cameramen quickly said his was fine, and I bristled at the implication that Chris was so much more fluid than me.
Over the next few snaps I ran intermediate and downfield patterns. These were the most fun, particularly when the ball was in the air. I’d track the ball with absolutely no idea where Chris was. Every time I went up, I’d believe it was just me in the picture, that I had somehow shaken him. Then Chris would appear from exactly the angle you’d think he couldn’t possibly be. From there, collisions ensued, sometimes between Chris’s body and mine, but more often between Chris’s hand and the ball.
I wasn’t surprised that Chris hadn’t gone all-out; I was surprised at how blind I’d been to this fact during the heat of battle. I needed more details. From the ground I called out Chris’s name three times before getting his attention. (The five-year-old now feels barely four.) I asked him how hard he had actually gone, what percentage of his effort he’d exerted.
“Maybe 20 to 30,” he said, before thinking a little more and then cruelly deciding on 20
http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/05/31/chris-harris-nfl-denver-broncos