Indystar.com
Ever since leaving the Indianapolis Colts, Marvin Harrison has been in the headlines for one thing – and it has zero to do with football.
Harrison, police think, may have been involved in a shooting in Philadelphia that took place near his bar, Playmakers. They don’t have enough evidence in the shooting to indict anyone, but there is certainly a lingering suspicion:
“Harrison has been labeled a ‘person of interest’ in the April 2008 shooting, which started when he had an altercation near his garage with Dwight Dixon, an ex-con who frequented the neighborhood. Dixon was shot once in the hand after an argument… Dixon was later fatally shot in a crime that remains unsolved.”
There was a lengthy piece written back in January about the entire sequence of events by Jason Fagone in GQ Magazine that is a must read if you’re an SU fan, or have even minimal interest in this intriguing story.
No further details had emerged about the story until days ago when Harrison was involved in a traffic stop which also involved a gun.
Harrison was stopped for driving the wrong way down a one-way street, and things got a little strange from there:
“The minor traffic incident, which occurred about 2:40 p.m., when Harrison was driving a Cadillac Escalade on Berks Street near 27th, got a bit more interesting when the officers started to question the ex-Indianapolis Colts wide receiver.
Harrison showed the cops a permit to carry a firearm that was registered in Montgomery County, where he owns a home, the source said.
However, he failed to mention that he had a handgun in the SUV, which he was required to do by law, the source noted.
The cops took the gun, which is registered to a man who lives in Philadelphia, the source said.
Harrison was not charged with any wrongdoing and was allowed to leave the scene.”
Incriminating? No. Interesting? Yes. For a guy who made millions of dollars in his life, why does he surround himself with guns and dance within questionable situations?
Is this the Marvin who left SU in 1995 as the team’s all time receiving leader?
Or the Marvin from the mean streets of Philadelphia who is having a tough time leaving that reality behind?
In the long run if anything does come out of this (the police are now taking his gun in for testing) it will reflect poorly on Harrison, not Syracuse. But does it make you look at him differently?
Fagone puts it well: “Add this new probe to the two pending civil cases against Harrison, and it looks like the winter of 2010 could be an uncomfortably warm one for the future Hall-of-Famer.”
And he wrote that six months ago. Yikes.
Posted: Mike Couzens
