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By BOB McGINN
bmcginn@journalsentinel.com
Posted: May 4, 2007
Green Bay - Justin Harrell has a plan. He intends to turn jeers to cheers, just the way Donovan McNabb did it in Philadelphia.
Even now, a week later, it still boggles the mind. How an estimated 2,000 green-and-gold-clad fans in the Lambeau Field atrium let general manager Ted Thompson have it with boos described as "deafening" after the Green Bay Packers selected Harrell in the first round of the National Football League draft.
Thompson pretended the reception didn't sting but he would have to be devoid of emotion for it not to hurt. The same goes for Harrell, who was with his family back home in Martin, Tenn.
On Friday, Harrell was introduced to state reporters for the first time and took the high road, refusing the chance to lash out at fans.
"Yeah, I saw it, I heard about it," Harrell said. "That's something I can't control, but I understood where they were coming from. They're just showing their loyalty to this organization and what they felt like they really needed."
McNabb was serenaded with boos eight years ago in New York when the Eagles used the second pick to select him rather than running back Ricky Williams. The so-called "Dirty Thirty," groupie-type listeners of Philly sports talk radio station WIP, were responsible.
Not only that but Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell, now governor of Pennsylvania, lobbied for Williams and then ripped the selection of McNabb afterward.
In the end, after McNabb proved himself as the finest quarterback in Eagles history, each "Dirty Thirty" member as well as Rendell apologized to him.
Harrell, the defensive tackle from Tennessee, isn't looking for 2,000 letters of apology anytime soon. But just as the slight undoubtedly helped motivate McNabb, who frequently has harkened back to the painful start of his NFL career, it probably will drive Harrell.
"It does, but I'm not really going to focus on that," Harrell said. "I just want to show everybody that the Packers didn't make a bad decision selecting me.
"Reggie McKenzie pulled me aside today and said: 'I don't want you coming in and changing anything. You just continue being the person you were at Tennessee and everything will work out.' That's what I want to do."
Harrell hit a lot of the right notes during his 15 minutes at the podium, coming across as humble, straight-forward and goal-oriented. No one from the Packers has ordained Harrell as a regular at one of their deeper positions but it's clear what he expects from himself as a rookie.
"I will come in and work as hard as I can and try to put the coaching staff in position that I'll be ready to start," he said. "When the regular season rolls around, I plan on being a starter."
Harrell called his selection by the Packers at No. 16 as "a big shock," seeing that he had little or no contact with the team since a brief meeting at the combine.
But having said that, Harrell professed to being comfortable in the small-town environment and enthusiastic about playing for a franchise steeped in tradition.
One of his heroes, the late Reggie White, addressed the Volunteers a few times during Harrell's five-year stay in Knoxville. He became the last Tennessee player to wear White's now-retired No. 92 jersey. Green Bay issued him No. 91.
"I got a chance to meet him and his wife," Harrell said. "He was a great person on the field but also off the field. He's one of the people you want to model your game and your life after. That's one thing I tried to do."
Harrell, 6 feet 4½ inches and 310 pounds, stands about one-half inch shorter than White and almost the same weight.
He's also comparable in size to Kevin Williams (6-5, 311), the ninth pick in the 2003 draft who has two Pro Bowl appearances and 30 sacks in four seasons for the Minnesota Vikings.
Williams ran 40 yards in 4.85 seconds, a major difference from Harrell's 5.06. But Harrell performed better than Williams in three of four athletic tests at the combine and also was stronger on the bench press.
On Friday, two NFL personnel directors disagreed that the comparison between Harrell and Williams had validity. However, two insisted that it did.
"I don't see why you wouldn't say that," one of the scouts said. "Is he that good? I didn't see that. But I saw a big man that was athletic like Kevin Williams. The only question mark was the durability."
It has been about seven months since Harrell underwent surgery to repair a torn biceps. His collegiate playing days also were interrupted by leg surgery in March 2003 and a broken ankle in August 2003. He promises to be full-go for minicamp in two weeks.
"I look at my injuries like I was unlucky," Harrell said. "I broke my ankle tackling a tackling dummy. You can't really predict tearing your bicep reaching out for a tackle. They're unfortunate injuries that I can't really explain."
Harrell also has been compared to Jacksonville's defensive tackle tandem of Marcus Stroud (6-6, 321, 5.10, three Pro Bowls, 17½ sacks in six years) and John Henderson (6-7, 328, 5.01, no Pro Bowls, 20½ sacks in five years).
Scouts say Harrell isn't as talented as Tennessee's Albert Haynesworth (6-5½, 317, 4.85, no Pro Bowls, nine sacks in five years) but plays much harder.
"We played the run pretty good at Tennessee," Harrell said. "We used technique, tried to create havoc and ran to the ball. That's what I plan on bringing to this organization."
And if some Packers backers come to apologize, Harrell's career will have come full circle.
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