For most Alabama football players excelling on the field is their most demanding challenge. For Najee Harris, football is the easiest of life’s dilemmas.
It is a long way from the lesser known locales in the Bay Area of California to Tuscaloosa. The physical distance is considerable. For Alabama football player Najee Harris, the locations are worlds apart in more than distance.
Najee Harris was never destined for greatness. Through no fault of his own, any grasp on stability in life was tenuous. While life was hard, football was always easy. For Najee Harris, only football carried reachable high expectations.
Before Tuscaloosa, Najee lived a hard life. Growing up in difficult circumstances, he was more likely to be a gang member than a football player. Najee’s dad, Curt admits to being a “banger” with more than a passing fancy.
Najee is the youngest of five children born to Curt and Tianna Harris. The Harris family was not stable. Homelessness was a too frequent condition. Najee recalls one of the shelters he lived in as a space roughly six-by-eight feet where he, his dad and two brothers spent almost a year.
"The food was downstairs. There’s like ants crawling over the food and hella homeless people. … I stayed in hella shelters before. When that didn’t work we stayed at a family member’s house. We stayed in the car.Staying in a house is the best thing."
A place to live was not the only challenge. Other family members say Najee’s father was verbally and physically abusive to his wife and the children. Tianna said football was her daycare.
"That was my safety net. I knew that they were safe there, and I didn’t have to worry about what was going on at home."
Marcus Malu who trained Najee in Antioch, CA explained how daycare football grew into salvation football.
"Every Friday night lets him forget about everything else that’s happening in his life. Football is his therapy."
Football became Najee’s salvation but it would not have saved him without the determination of his mother. Tianna had her kids young. She did not accomplish a GED until later. Eventually, despite hardship and abuse, she earned a degree in the medical field.
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When Najee chose Tuscaloosa as his college football home, Tianna found a job in a medical office in Birmingham. On Sundays, she is known to drive back and forth to Tuscaloosa twice. First to pick up her son for Sunday church in Birmingham and then return him to Tuscaloosa.
Running to greatness is a mission for Najee Harris. Football greatness is the avenue to a life of stability, something he could not envision in his youth. The young man also wants to pay his mom back for her love, her toughness, her determination.
Given the life Najee knew and escaped, running on a Crimson Tide football field must feel like a celebration. Like all his Alabama football teammates, he must work hard, he must overcome obstacles. Being human, players must also cope with frustration and disappointment. Najee’s limited role last season led to him consider a transfer. For Najee, being unsettled and jumping to another setting were givens in his youth.
Instead of making a move, Najee stuck in Tuscaloosa. Playing for an uncompromising coach who offers a path to the NFL, also means pass protection must be perfected in order to play. Alabama football is loaded at running back in 2018. Najee Harris is the most physically gifted of them all. One knowledgeable insider recently tabbed Najee as potentially the best of the Saban running backs.
Let that sink in Alabama football fans – Najee Harris may become better than two Heisman Trophy winners. The six-carry, 64-yard performance against Georgia offered a mere hint of how good Najee Harris can become.
Bama Hammer has been doing player profiles for the last few weeks. Check out our earlier ones on Shyheim Carter, Jaylen Moody, Mack Wilson and Jaylen Waddle.